Category: DAB Readings

Syria Attacks Israel

20 King Benhadad of Syria^[a] called his army together. He was joined by thirty-two other kings with their horses and chariots, and together they marched to Samaria and attacked. ² Benhadad sent a messenger to tell King Ahab of Israel, ³ “Ahab, give me your silver and gold, your wives,^[b] and your strongest sons!”

⁴ “Your Majesty,” Ahab replied, “everything I have is yours, including me.”

⁵ Later, Benhadad sent another messenger to say to Ahab, “I already told you to give me your silver and gold, your wives, and your children. ⁶ But tomorrow at this time, I will send my officials into your city to search your palace and the houses of your officials. They will take everything else that you^[c] own.”

⁷ Ahab called a meeting with the leaders of Israel and said, “Benhadad is causing real trouble. He told me to give him my wives and children, as well as my silver and gold. And I agreed.”

⁸ “Don’t listen to him!” they answered. “You don’t have to do what he says.”

⁹ So Ahab sent someone to tell Benhadad, “Your Majesty, I’ll give you my silver and gold, and even my wives and children. But I won’t let you have anything else.”

When Benhadad got his answer, ¹⁰ he replied, “I’ll completely destroy Samaria! There won’t even be enough of it left for my soldiers to carry back in their hands. If I don’t do it, I pray that the gods will punish me terribly.”

¹¹ Ahab then answered, “Benhadad, don’t brag before the fighting even begins. Wait and see if you live through it.”

¹² Meanwhile, Benhadad and the other kings had been drinking in their tents. But when Ahab’s reply came, he ordered his soldiers to prepare to attack Samaria, and they all got ready.

¹³ At that very moment, a prophet ran up to Ahab and said, “You can see that Benhadad’s army is very strong. But the Lord has promised to help you defeat them today. Then you will know that the Lord is in control.”

¹⁴ “Who will fight the battle?” Ahab asked.

The prophet answered, “The young bodyguards who serve the district officials.”

“But who will lead them into battle?” Ahab asked.

“You will!” the prophet replied.

¹⁵ So Ahab called together the two hundred thirty-two young soldiers and the seven thousand troops in Israel’s army, and he got them ready to fight the Syrians.

Israel Defeats the Syrians

^16-17 At noon, King Ahab and his Israelite army marched out of Samaria, with the young soldiers in front.

King Benhadad of Syria and the thirty-two kings with him were drunk when the scouts he had sent out ran up to his tent, shouting, “We just now saw soldiers marching out of Samaria!”

¹⁸ “Take them alive!” Benhadad ordered. “I don’t care if they have come out to fight or to surrender.”

¹⁹ The young soldiers led Israel’s troops into battle, ²⁰ and each of them attacked and killed an enemy soldier. The rest of the Syrian army turned and ran, and the Israelites went after them. Benhadad and some others escaped on horses, ²¹ but Ahab and his soldiers followed them and captured^[d] their horses and chariots.

Ahab and Israel’s army crushed the Syrians.

²² Later, the prophet^[e] went back and warned Ahab, “Benhadad will attack you again next spring. Build up your troops and make sure you have some good plans.”

Syria Attacks Israel Again

²³ Meanwhile, Benhadad’s officials went to him and explained:

Benhadad agreed and did what they suggested.

²⁶ In the spring, Benhadad got his army together, and they marched to the town of Aphek to attack Israel. ²⁷ The Israelites also prepared to fight. They marched out to meet the Syrians, and the two armies camped across from each other. The Syrians covered the whole area, but the Israelites looked like two little flocks of goats.

²⁸ The prophet went to Ahab and said, “The Syrians think the Lord is a god of the hills and not of the valleys. So he has promised to help you defeat their powerful army. Then you will know that the Lord is in control.”

²⁹ For seven days the two armies stayed in their camps, facing each other. Then on the seventh day the fighting broke out, and before sunset the Israelites had killed one hundred thousand Syrian troops. ³⁰ The rest of the Syrian army ran back to Aphek, but the town wall fell and crushed twenty-seven thousand of them.

Benhadad also escaped to Aphek and hid in the back room of a house. ³¹ His officials said, “Your Majesty, we’ve heard that Israel’s kings keep their agreements. We will wrap sackcloth around our waists, put ropes around our heads, and ask Ahab to let you live.”

³² They dressed in sackcloth and put ropes on their heads, then they went to Ahab and said, “Your servant Benhadad asks you to let him live.”

“Is he still alive?” Ahab asked. “Benhadad is like a brother to me.”

³³ Benhadad’s officials were trying to figure out what Ahab was thinking, and when he said “brother,” they quickly replied, “You’re right! You and Benhadad are like brothers.”

“Go get him,” Ahab said.

When Benhadad came out, Ahab had him climb up into his chariot.

³⁴ Benhadad said, “I’ll give back the towns my father took from your father. And you can have shops in Damascus, just as my father had in Samaria.”

Ahab replied, “If you do these things, I’ll let you go free.” Then they signed a peace treaty, and Ahab let Benhadad go.

A Prophet Condemns Ahab

³⁵ About this time the Lord commanded a prophet to say to a friend, “Hit me!” But the friend refused, ³⁶ and the prophet told him, “You disobeyed the Lord, and as soon as you walk away, a lion will kill you.” The friend left, and suddenly a lion killed him.

³⁷ The prophet found someone else and said, “Hit me!” So this man beat him up.

³⁸ The prophet left and put a bandage over his face to disguise himself. Then he went and stood beside the road, waiting for Ahab to pass by.

³⁹ When Ahab went by, the prophet shouted, “Your Majesty, right in the heat of battle, someone brought a prisoner to me and told me to guard him. He said if the prisoner got away, I would either be killed or forced to pay seventy-five pounds of silver. ⁴⁰ But I got busy doing other things, and the prisoner escaped.”

Ahab answered, “You will be punished just as you have said.”

⁴¹ The man quickly tore the bandage off his face, and Ahab saw that he was one of the prophets. ⁴² The prophet said, “The Lord told you to kill Benhadad, but you let him go. Now you will die in his place, and your people will die in place of his people.”

⁴³ Ahab went back to Samaria, angry and depressed.

Jezebel Has Naboth Killed

21 Naboth owned a vineyard in Jezreel near King Ahab’s palace.

² One day, Ahab said, “Naboth, your vineyard is near my palace. Give it to me so I can turn it into a vegetable garden. I’ll give you a better vineyard or pay whatever you want for yours.”

³ Naboth answered, “This vineyard has always been in my family. I won’t let you have it.”

⁴ So Ahab went home, angry and depressed because of what Naboth had told him. He lay on his bed, just staring at the wall and refusing to eat a thing.

⁵ Jezebel his wife came in and asked, “What’s wrong? Why won’t you eat?”

⁶ “I asked Naboth to sell me his vineyard or to let me give him a better one,” Ahab replied. “And he told me I couldn’t have it.”

⁷ “Aren’t you the king of Israel?” Jezebel asked. “Get out of bed and eat something! Don’t worry, I’ll get Naboth’s vineyard for you.”

^8-10 Jezebel wrote a letter to each of the leaders of the town where Naboth lived. In the letters she said:

She signed Ahab’s name to the letters and sealed them with his seal. Then she sent them to the town leaders.

¹¹ After receiving her letters, they did exactly what she had asked. ¹² They told the people that it was a day to go without eating, and when they all came together, they seated Naboth at the front. ¹³ The two liars came in and sat across from Naboth. Then they accused him of cursing God and the king, so the people dragged Naboth outside and stoned him to death.

¹⁴ The leaders of Jezreel sent a message back to Jezebel that said, “Naboth is dead.”

¹⁵ As soon as Jezebel got their message, she told Ahab, “Now you can have the vineyard Naboth refused to sell. He’s dead.” ¹⁶ Ahab got up and went to take over the vineyard.

Elijah Condemns Ahab

¹⁷ The Lord said to Elijah the prophet, ¹⁸ “King Ahab of Israel is in Naboth’s vineyard right now, taking it over. ¹⁹ Go tell him that I say, ‘Ahab, you murdered Naboth and took his property. And so, in the very spot where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, they will lick up your blood.’”

When Elijah found him, ²⁰ Ahab said, “So, my enemy, you found me at last.”

Elijah answered:

^25-29 When Ahab heard this, he tore his clothes and wore sackcloth day and night. He was depressed and refused to eat.

Some time later, the Lord said, “Elijah, do you see how sorry Ahab is for what he did? I won’t punish his family while he is still alive. I’ll wait until his son is king.”

No one was more determined than Ahab to disobey the Lord. And Jezebel encouraged him. Worst of all, he had worshiped idols, just as the Amorites^[g] had done before the Lord forced them out of the land and gave it to Israel.

²⁴ God’s message kept spreading. ²⁵ And after Barnabas and Saul had done the work they were sent to do, they went back to Jerusalem^[a] with John, whose other name was Mark.

Barnabas and Saul Are Chosen and Sent

13 The church at Antioch had several prophets and teachers. They were Barnabas, Simeon, also called Niger, Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen, who was Herod’s^[b] close friend, and Saul. ² While they were worshiping the Lord and going without eating,^[c] the Holy Spirit told them, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul to do the work for which I have chosen them.” ³ Everyone prayed and went without eating for a while longer. Next, they placed their hands on Barnabas and Saul to show that they had been appointed to do this work. Then everyone sent them on their way.

Barnabas and Saul in Cyprus

⁴ After Barnabas and Saul had been sent by the Holy Spirit, they went to Seleucia. From there they sailed to the island of Cyprus. ⁵ They arrived at Salamis and began to preach God’s message in the Jewish meeting places. They also had John^[d] as a helper.

⁶ Barnabas and Saul went all the way to the city of Paphos on the other end of the island, where they met a Jewish man named Bar-Jesus. He practiced witchcraft and was a false prophet. ⁷ He also worked for Sergius Paulus, who was very smart and was the governor of the island. Sergius Paulus wanted to hear God’s message, and he sent for Barnabas and Saul. ⁸ But Bar-Jesus, whose other name was Elymas, was against them. He even tried to keep the governor from having faith in the Lord.

⁹ Then Saul, better known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit. He looked straight at Elymas ¹⁰ and said, “You son of the devil! You are a liar, a crook, and an enemy of everything that is right. When will you stop speaking against the true ways of the Lord? ¹¹ The Lord is going to punish you by making you completely blind for a while.”

Suddenly the man’s eyes were covered by a dark mist, and he went around trying to get someone to lead him by the hand. ¹² When the governor saw what had happened, he was amazed at this teaching about the Lord. So he put his faith in the Lord.

Paul and Barnabas in Antioch of Pisidia

¹³ Paul and the others left Paphos and sailed to Perga in Pamphylia. But John^[e] left them and went back to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ The rest of them went on from Perga to Antioch in Pisidia. Then on the Sabbath they went to the Jewish meeting place and sat down.

¹⁵ After the reading of the Law and the Prophets,^[f] the leaders sent someone over to tell Paul and Barnabas, “Friends, if you have anything to say that will help the people, please say it.”

A Prayer for Revenge

Elijah Runs Away from Ahab and Jezebel

19 Ahab told his wife Jezebel what Elijah had done and that he had killed the prophets. ² She sent a message to Elijah: “You killed my prophets. Now I’m going to kill you! I pray that the gods will punish me even more severely if I don’t do it by this time tomorrow.”

³ Elijah was afraid when he got her message, and he ran to the town of Beersheba in Judah. He left his servant there, ⁴ then walked another whole day into the desert. Finally, he came to a large bush and sat down in its shade. He begged the Lord, “I’ve had enough. Just let me die! I’m no better off than my ancestors.” ⁵ Then he lay down in the shade and fell asleep.

Suddenly an angel woke him up and said, “Get up and eat.” ⁶ Elijah looked around, and by his head was a jar of water and some baked bread. He sat up, ate and drank, then lay down and went back to sleep.

⁷ Soon the Lord’s angel woke him again and said, “Get up and eat, or else you’ll get too tired to travel.” ⁸ So Elijah sat up and ate and drank.

The food and water made him strong enough to walk forty more days. At last, he reached Mount Sinai,^[a] the mountain of God, ⁹ and he spent the night there in a cave.

The Lord Appears to Elijah

While Elijah was on Mount Sinai, the Lord asked, “Elijah, why are you here?”

¹⁰ He answered, “Lord God All-Powerful, I’ve always done my best to obey you. But your people have broken their solemn promise to you. They have torn down your altars and killed all your prophets, except me. And now they are even trying to kill me!”

¹¹ “Go out and stand on the mountain,” the Lord replied. “I want you to see me when I pass by.”

All at once, a strong wind shook the mountain and shattered the rocks. But the Lord was not in the wind. Next, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² Then there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

Finally, there was a gentle breeze,^{[b] 13} and when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his coat. He went out and stood at the entrance to the cave.

The Lord^[c] asked, “Elijah, why are you here?”

¹⁴ Elijah answered, “Lord God All-Powerful, I’ve always done my best to obey you. But your people have broken their solemn promise to you. They have torn down your altars and killed all your prophets, except me. And now they are even trying to kill me!”

¹⁵ The Lord said:

Elisha Becomes Elijah’s Assistant

¹⁹ Elijah left and found Elisha plowing a field with a pair of oxen. There were eleven other men in front of him, and each one was also plowing with a pair of oxen. Elijah went over and put his own coat on Elisha.^[f]

²⁰ Elisha stopped plowing and ran after him. “Let me kiss my parents good-by, then I’ll go with you,” he said.

“You can go,” Elijah said. “But remember what I’ve done for you.”

²¹ Elisha left and took his oxen with him. He killed them and boiled them over a fire he had made with the wood from his plow. He gave the meat to the people who were with him, and they ate it. Then he left with Elijah and became his assistant.

Herod Causes Trouble for the Church

12 At that time King Herod^[a] caused terrible suffering for some members of the church. ² He ordered soldiers to cut off the head of James, the brother of John. ³ When Herod saw that this pleased the Jewish people, he had Peter arrested during the Festival of Thin Bread. ⁴ He put Peter in jail and ordered four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to put him on trial in public after the festival.

⁵ While Peter was being kept in jail, the church never stopped praying to God for him.

Peter Is Rescued

⁶ The night before Peter was to be put on trial, he was asleep and bound by two chains. A soldier was guarding him on each side, and two other soldiers were guarding the entrance to the jail. ⁷ Suddenly an angel from the Lord appeared, and light flashed around in the cell. The angel poked Peter in the side and woke him up. Then he said, “Quick! Get up!”

The chains fell off his hands, ⁸ and the angel said, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” Peter did what he was told. Then the angel said, “Now put on your coat and follow me.” ⁹ Peter left with the angel, but he thought everything was only a dream. ¹⁰ They went past the two groups of soldiers, and when they came to the iron gate to the city, it opened by itself. They went out and were going along the street, when all at once the angel disappeared.

¹¹ Peter now realized what had happened, and he said, “I am certain that the Lord sent his angel to rescue me from Herod and from everything the Jewish leaders planned to do to me.” ¹² Then Peter went to the house of Mary the mother of John whose other name was Mark. Many of the Lord’s followers had come together there and were praying.

¹³ Peter knocked on the gate, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ When she heard Peter’s voice, she was too excited to open the gate. She ran back into the house and said that Peter was standing there.

¹⁵ “You are crazy!” everyone told her. But she kept saying that it was Peter. Then they said, “It must be his angel.”^{[b] 16} But Peter kept on knocking, until finally they opened the gate. They saw him and were completely amazed.

¹⁷ Peter motioned for them to keep quiet. Then he told how the Lord had led him out of jail. He also said, “Tell James^[c] and the others what has happened.” After that, he left and went somewhere else.

¹⁸ The next morning the soldiers who had been on guard were terribly worried and wondered what had happened to Peter. ¹⁹ Herod ordered his own soldiers to search for him, but they could not find him. Then he questioned the guards and had them put to death. After this, Herod left Judea to stay in Caesarea for a while.

Herod Dies

²⁰ Herod and the people of Tyre and Sidon were very angry with each other. But their country got its food supply from the region that he ruled. So a group of them went to see Blastus, who was one of Herod’s high officials. They convinced Blastus that they wanted to make peace between their cities and Herod, ²¹ and a day was set for them to meet with him.

Herod came dressed in his royal robes. He sat down on his throne and made a speech. ²² The people shouted, “You speak more like a god than a man!” ²³ At once an angel from the Lord struck him down because he took the honor that belonged to God. Later, Herod was eaten by worms and died.

God’s Love Never Fails

Elijah Proves He Is the Lord’s Prophet

18 ^1-2 For three years no rain fell in Samaria, and there was almost nothing to eat anywhere. The Lord said to Elijah, “Go and meet with King Ahab. I will soon make it rain.” So Elijah went to see Ahab.

^3-4 At that time Obadiah was in charge of Ahab’s palace, but he faithfully worshiped the Lord. In fact, when Jezebel was trying to kill the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah hid one hundred of them in two caves and gave them food and water.

Ahab sent for Obadiah ⁵ and said, “We have to find something for our horses and mules to eat. If we don’t, we will have to kill them. Let’s look around every creek and spring in the country for some grass. ⁶ You go one way, and I’ll go the other.” Then they left in separate directions.

⁷ As Obadiah was walking along, he met Elijah. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down, and asked, “Elijah, is it really you?”

⁸ “Yes. Go tell Ahab I’m here.”

⁹ Obadiah replied:

¹⁵ Elijah said, “I’m a servant of the living Lord All-Powerful, and I swear in his name that I will meet with Ahab today.”

¹⁶ Obadiah left and told Ahab where to find Elijah.

Ahab went to meet Elijah, ¹⁷ and when he saw him, Ahab shouted, “There you are, the biggest troublemaker in Israel!”

¹⁸ Elijah answered:

²⁰ Ahab got everyone together, then they went to meet Elijah on Mount Carmel. ²¹ Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you try to have things both ways? If the Lord is God, worship him! But if Baal is God, worship him!”

The people did not say a word.

²² Then Elijah continued:

“That’s a good idea,” everyone agreed.

²⁵ Elijah said to Baal’s prophets, “There are more of you, so you go first. Pick out a bull and get it ready, but don’t light the fire. Then pray to your god.”

²⁶ They chose their bull, then they got it ready and prayed to Baal all morning, asking him to start the fire. They danced around the altar and shouted, “Answer us, Baal!” But there was no answer.

²⁷ At noon, Elijah began making fun of them. “Pray louder!” he said. “Baal must be a god. Maybe he’s day-dreaming or using the toilet or traveling somewhere. Or maybe he’s asleep, and you have to wake him up.”

²⁸ The prophets kept shouting louder and louder, and they cut themselves with swords and knives until they were bleeding. This was the way they worshiped, ²⁹ and they kept it up all afternoon. But there was no answer of any kind.

³⁰ Elijah told everyone to gather around him while he repaired the Lord’s altar. ^31-32 Then he used twelve stones to build an altar in honor of the Lord. Each stone stood for one of the tribes of Israel, which was the name the Lord had given to their ancestor Jacob. Elijah dug a ditch around the altar, large enough to hold about thirteen quarts. ³³ He placed the wood on the altar, then they cut the bull into pieces and laid the meat on the wood.

He told the people, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it over the meat and the wood.” After they did this, ³⁴ he told them to do it two more times. They did exactly as he said ³⁵ until finally, the water ran down the altar and filled the ditch.

³⁶ When it was time for the evening sacrifice, Elijah prayed:

³⁸ The Lord immediately sent fire, and it burned up the sacrifice, the wood, and the stones. It scorched the ground everywhere around the altar and dried up every drop of water in the ditch. ³⁹ When the crowd saw what had happened, they all bowed down and shouted, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”

⁴⁰ Just then, Elijah said, “Grab the prophets of Baal! Don’t let any of them get away.”

So the people captured the prophets and took them to Kishon River, where Elijah killed every one of them.

It Starts To Rain

⁴¹ Elijah told Ahab, “Get something to eat and drink. I hear a heavy rain coming.”

⁴² Ahab left, but Elijah climbed back to the top of Mount Carmel. Then he stooped down with his face almost to the ground ⁴³ and said to his servant, “Look toward the sea.”

The servant left. And when he came back, he said, “I looked, but I didn’t see anything.” Elijah told him to look seven more times.

⁴⁴ After the seventh time the servant replied, “I see a small cloud coming this way. But it’s no bigger than a fist.”

Elijah told him, “Tell Ahab to get his chariot ready and start home now. Otherwise, the rain will stop him.”

^45-46 A few minutes later, it got very cloudy and windy, and rain started pouring down. So Elijah wrapped his coat around himself, and the Lord gave him strength to run all the way to Jezreel. Ahab followed him.

Peter Reports to the Church in Jerusalem

11 The apostles and the followers in Judea heard that Gentiles had accepted God’s message. ² So when Peter came to Jerusalem, some of the Jewish followers started arguing with him. They wanted Gentile followers to be circumcised, and ³ they said, “You stayed in the homes of Gentiles, and you even ate with them!”

⁴ Then Peter told them exactly what had happened:

¹⁸ When they heard Peter say this, they stopped arguing and started praising God. They said, “God has now let Gentiles turn to him, and he has given life to them!”

The Church in Antioch

¹⁹ Some of the Lord’s followers had been scattered because of the terrible trouble that started when Stephen was killed. They went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they told the message only to the Jews.

²⁰ Some of the followers from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and started telling Gentiles^[b] the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹ The Lord’s power was with them, and many people turned to the Lord and put their faith in him. ²² News of what was happening reached the church in Jerusalem. Then they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

²³ When Barnabas got there and saw what God had been kind enough to do for them, he was very glad. So he begged them to remain faithful to the Lord with all their hearts. ²⁴ Barnabas was a good man of great faith, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Many more people turned to the Lord.

²⁵ Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. ²⁶ He found Saul and brought him to Antioch, where they met with the church for a whole year and taught many of its people. There in Antioch the Lord’s followers were first called Christians.

²⁷ During this time some prophets from Jerusalem came to Antioch. ²⁸ One of them was Agabus. Then with the help of the Spirit, he told that there would be a terrible famine everywhere in the world. And it happened when Claudius was Emperor.^{[c] 29} The followers in Antioch decided to send whatever help they could to the followers in Judea. ³⁰ So they had Barnabas and Saul take their gifts to the church leaders in Jerusalem.

In Praise of the Lord’s Kindness

King Nadab of Israel

²⁵ In the second year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, King Jeroboam's son Nadab became king of Israel, and he ruled for two years. ²⁶ Like his father before him, he sinned against the Lord and led Israel into sin.

²⁷ Baasha son of Ahijah, of the tribe of Issachar, plotted against Nadab and killed him as Nadab and his army were besieging the city of Gibbethon in Philistia. ²⁸ This happened during the third year of the reign of King Asa of Judah. And so Baasha succeeded Nadab as king of Israel. ^29 (A)At once he began killing all the members of Jeroboam's family. In accordance with what the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh, all of Jeroboam's family were killed; not one survived. ³⁰ This happened because Jeroboam aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by the sins that he committed and that he caused Israel to commit.

³¹ Everything else that Nadab did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ³² King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel were constantly at war with each other as long as they were in power.

King Baasha of Israel

³³ In the third year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel, and he ruled in Tirzah for twenty-four years. ³⁴ Like King Jeroboam before him, he sinned against the Lord and led Israel into sin.

16 The Lord spoke to the prophet Jehu son of Hanani and gave him this message for Baasha: ² “You were a nobody, but I made you the leader of my people Israel. And now you have sinned like Jeroboam and have led my people into sin. Their sins have aroused my anger, ³ and so I will do away with you and your family, just as I did with Jeroboam. ⁴ Any members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures.”

⁵ Everything else that Baasha did and all his brave deeds are recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ⁶ Baasha died and was buried in Tirzah, and his son Elah succeeded him as king.

⁷ That message from the Lord against Baasha and his family was given by the prophet Jehu because of the sins that Baasha committed against the Lord. He aroused the Lord's anger not only because of the evil he did, just as King Jeroboam had done before him, but also because he killed all of Jeroboam's family.

King Elah of Israel

⁸ In the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel, and he ruled in Tirzah for two years. ⁹ Zimri, one of his officers who was in charge of half of the king's chariots, plotted against him. One day in Tirzah, Elah was getting drunk in the home of Arza, who was in charge of the palace. ¹⁰ Zimri entered the house, assassinated Elah, and succeeded him as king. This happened in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King Asa of Judah.

¹¹ As soon as Zimri became king he killed off all the members of Baasha's family. Every male relative and friend was put to death. ¹² And so, in accordance with what the Lord had said against Baasha through the prophet Jehu, Zimri killed all the family of Baasha. ¹³ Because of their idolatry and because they led Israel into sin, Baasha and his son Elah had aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁴ Everything else that Elah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

King Zimri of Israel

¹⁵ In the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, Zimri ruled in Tirzah over Israel for seven days. The Israelite troops were besieging the city of Gibbethon in Philistia, ¹⁶ and when they heard that Zimri had plotted against the king and assassinated him, then and there they all proclaimed their commander Omri king of Israel. ¹⁷ Omri and his troops left Gibbethon and went and besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city had fallen, he went into the palace's inner fortress, set the palace on fire, and died in the flames. ¹⁹ This happened because of his sins against the Lord. Like his predecessor Jeroboam, he displeased the Lord by his own sins and by leading Israel into sin. ²⁰ Everything else that Zimri did, including the account of his conspiracy, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

King Omri of Israel

²¹ The people of Israel were divided: some of them wanted to make Tibni son of Ginath king, and the others were in favor of Omri. ²² In the end, those in favor of Omri won out; Tibni died and Omri became king. ²³ So in the thirty-first year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he ruled for twelve years. The first six years he ruled in Tirzah, ²⁴ and then he bought the hill of Samaria for six thousand pieces of silver from a man named Shemer. Omri fortified the hill, built a town there, and named it Samaria, after Shemer, the former owner of the hill.

²⁵ Omri sinned against the Lord more than any of his predecessors. ²⁶ Like Jeroboam before him, he aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by his sins and by leading the people into sin and idolatry. ²⁷ Everything else that Omri did and all his accomplishments are recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁸ Omri died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Ahab succeeded him as king.

King Ahab of Israel

²⁹ In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twenty-two years. ³⁰ He sinned against the Lord more than any of his predecessors. ³¹ It was not enough for him to sin like King Jeroboam; he went further and married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon, and worshiped Baal. ³² He built a temple to Baal in Samaria, made an altar for him, and put it in the temple. ³³ He also put up an image of the goddess Asherah. He did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than all the kings of Israel before him. ^34 (B)During his reign Hiel from Bethel rebuilt Jericho. As the Lord had foretold through Joshua son of Nun, Hiel lost his oldest son Abiram when he laid the foundation of Jericho, and his youngest son Segub when he built the gates.

Elijah and the Drought

17 ^(C)A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab, “In the name of the Lord, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until I say so.”

² Then the Lord said to Elijah, ³ “Leave this place and go east and hide yourself near Cherith Brook, east of the Jordan. ⁴ The brook will supply you with water to drink, and I have commanded ravens to bring you food there.”

⁵ Elijah obeyed the Lord's command, and went and stayed by Cherith Brook. ⁶ He drank water from the brook, and ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and every evening. ⁷ After a while the brook dried up because of the lack of rain.

Elijah and the Widow in Zarephath

⁸ Then the Lord said to Elijah, ^9 (D)“Now go to the town of Zarephath, near Sidon, and stay there. I have commanded a widow who lives there to feed you.” ¹⁰ So Elijah went to Zarephath, and as he came to the town gate, he saw a widow gathering firewood. “Please bring me a drink of water,” he said to her. ¹¹ And as she was going to get it, he called out, “And please bring me some bread, too.”

¹² She answered, “By the living Lord your God I swear that I don't have any bread. All I have is a handful of flour in a bowl and a bit of olive oil in a jar. I came here to gather some firewood to take back home and prepare what little I have for my son and me. That will be our last meal, and then we will starve to death.”

¹³ “Don't worry,” Elijah said to her. “Go on and prepare your meal. But first make a small loaf from what you have and bring it to me, and then prepare the rest for you and your son. ¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The bowl will not run out of flour or the jar run out of oil before the day that I, the Lord, send rain.’”

¹⁵ The widow went and did as Elijah had told her, and all of them had enough food for many days. ¹⁶ As the Lord had promised through Elijah, the bowl did not run out of flour nor did the jar run out of oil.

¹⁷ Some time later the widow's son got sick; he got worse and worse, and finally he died. ¹⁸ She said to Elijah, “Man of God, why did you do this to me? Did you come here to remind God of my sins and so cause my son's death?”

¹⁹ “Give the boy to me,” Elijah said. He took the boy from her arms, carried him upstairs to the room where he was staying, and laid him on the bed. ²⁰ Then he prayed aloud, “O Lord my God, why have you done such a terrible thing to this widow? She has been kind enough to take care of me, and now you kill her son!” ^21 (E)Then Elijah stretched himself out on the boy three times and prayed, “O Lord my God, restore this child to life!” ²² The Lord answered Elijah's prayer; the child started breathing again and revived.

²³ Elijah took the boy back downstairs to his mother and said to her, “Look, your son is alive!”

²⁴ She answered, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the Lord really speaks through you!”

²⁴ The following day he arrived in Caesarea, where Cornelius was waiting for him, together with relatives and close friends that he had invited. ²⁵ As Peter was about to go in, Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and bowed down before him. ²⁶ But Peter made him rise. “Stand up,” he said, “I myself am only a man.” ²⁷ Peter kept on talking to Cornelius as he went into the house, where he found many people gathered. ²⁸ He said to them, “You yourselves know very well that a Jew is not allowed by his religion to visit or associate with Gentiles. But God has shown me that I must not consider any person ritually unclean or defiled. ²⁹ And so when you sent for me, I came without any objection. I ask you, then, why did you send for me?”

³⁰ Cornelius said, “It was about this time three days ago that I was praying^[a] in my house at three o'clock in the afternoon. Suddenly a man dressed in shining clothes stood in front of me ³¹ and said: ‘Cornelius! God has heard your prayer and has taken notice of your works of charity. ³² Send someone to Joppa for a man whose full name is Simon Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner of leather, who lives by the sea.’ ³³ And so I sent for you at once, and you have been good enough to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God, waiting to hear anything that the Lord has instructed you to say.”

Peter's Speech

^34 (A)Peter began to speak: “I now realize that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis. ³⁵ Those who fear him and do what is right are acceptable to him, no matter what race they belong to. ³⁶ You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, proclaiming the Good News of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. ³⁷ You know of the great event that took place throughout the land of Israel, beginning in Galilee after John preached his message of baptism. ³⁸ You know about Jesus of Nazareth and how God poured out on him the Holy Spirit and power. He went everywhere, doing good and healing all who were under the power of the Devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses of everything that he did in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem. Then they put him to death by nailing him to a cross. ⁴⁰ But God raised him from death three days later and caused him to appear, ⁴¹ not to everyone, but only to the witnesses that God had already chosen, that is, to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from death. ⁴² And he commanded us to preach the gospel to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God has appointed judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets spoke about him, saying that all who believe in him will have their sins forgiven through the power of his name.”

The Gentiles Receive the Holy Spirit

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening to his message. ⁴⁵ The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in strange tongues and praising God's greatness. Peter spoke up: ⁴⁷ “These people have received the Holy Spirit, just as we also did. Can anyone, then, stop them from being baptized with water?” ⁴⁸ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay with them for a few days.

A Call to Praise God

⁹ If you want people to like you, forgive them when they wrong you. Remembering wrongs can break up a friendship.

¹⁰ An intelligent person learns more from one rebuke than a fool learns from being beaten a hundred times.

¹¹ Death will come like a cruel messenger to wicked people who are always stirring up trouble.

The Death of Jeroboam's Son

14 At that time King Jeroboam's son Abijah got sick. ² Jeroboam said to his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you, and go to Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah lives, the one who said I would be king of Israel. ³ Take him ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Ask him what is going to happen to our son, and he will tell you.”

⁴ So she went to Ahijah's home in Shiloh. Old age had made Ahijah blind. ⁵ The Lord had told him that Jeroboam's wife was coming to ask him about her son, who was sick. And the Lord told Ahijah what to say.

When Jeroboam's wife arrived, she pretended to be someone else. ⁶ But when Ahijah heard her coming in the door, he said, “Come in. I know you are Jeroboam's wife. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have bad news for you. ⁷ Go and tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to him: ‘I chose you from among the people and made you the ruler of my people Israel. ⁸ I took the kingdom away from David's descendants and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who was completely loyal to me, obeyed my commands, and did only what I approve of. ⁹ You have committed far greater sins than those who ruled before you. You have rejected me and have aroused my anger by making idols and metal images to worship. ^10 (A)Because of this I will bring disaster on your dynasty and will kill all your male descendants, young and old alike. I will get rid of your family; they will be swept away like dung. ¹¹ Any members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

¹² And Ahijah went on to say to Jeroboam's wife, “Now go back home. As soon as you enter the town, your son will die. ¹³ All the people of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He will be the only member of Jeroboam's family who will be properly buried, because he is the only one with whom the Lord, the God of Israel, is pleased. ¹⁴ The Lord is going to place a king over Israel who will put an end to Jeroboam's dynasty.^{[a] 15} The Lord will punish Israel, and she will shake like a reed shaking in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land which he gave to their ancestors, and he will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they have aroused his anger by making idols of the goddess Asherah. ¹⁶ The Lord will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and led the people of Israel into sin.”

¹⁷ Jeroboam's wife went back to Tirzah. Just as she entered her home, the child died. ¹⁸ The people of Israel mourned for him and buried him, as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

The Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹ Everything else that King Jeroboam did, the wars he fought and how he ruled, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam ruled as king for twenty-two years. He died and was buried, and his son Nadab succeeded him as king.

King Rehoboam of Judah^(B)

²¹ Solomon's son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah from Ammon.

²² The people of Judah sinned against the Lord and did more to arouse his anger against them than all their ancestors had done. ^23 (C)They built places of worship for false gods and put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship on the hills and under shady trees. ^24 (D)Worst of all, there were men and women who served as prostitutes at those pagan places of worship. The people of Judah practiced all the shameful things done by the people whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the Israelites advanced into the country.

^25 (E)In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ^26 (F)He took away all the treasures in the Temple and in the palace, including the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷ To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace gates. ²⁸ Every time the king went to the Temple, the guards carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom.

²⁹ Everything else that King Rehoboam did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ³⁰ During all this time Rehoboam and Jeroboam were constantly at war with each other. ³¹ Rehoboam died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City and his son Abijah succeeded him as king.

King Abijah of Judah^(G)

15 In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel, Abijah became king of Judah, ² and he ruled three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. ³ He committed the same sins as his father and was not completely loyal to the Lord his God, as his great-grandfather David had been. ^4 (H)But for David's sake the Lord his God gave Abijah a son to rule after him in Jerusalem and to keep Jerusalem secure. ^5 (I)The Lord did this because David had done what pleased him and had never disobeyed any of his commands, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. ^6 (J)The war which had begun between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continued throughout Abijah's lifetime. ⁷ And everything else that Abijah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

⁸ Abijah died and was buried in David's City, and his son Asa succeeded him as king.

King Asa of Judah^(K)

⁹ In the twentieth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, ¹⁰ and he ruled forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. ¹¹ Asa did what pleased the Lord, as his ancestor David had done. ^12 (L)He expelled from the country all the male and female prostitutes serving at the pagan places of worship, and he removed all the idols his predecessors had made. ¹³ He removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. Asa cut down the idol and burned it in Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ Even though Asa did not destroy all the pagan places of worship, he remained faithful to the Lord all his life. ¹⁵ He placed in the Temple all the objects his father had dedicated to God, as well as the gold and silver objects that he himself dedicated.

¹⁶ King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel were constantly at war with each other as long as they were in power. ¹⁷ Baasha invaded Judah and started to fortify Ramah in order to cut off all traffic in and out of Judah. ¹⁸ So King Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the Temple and the palace, and sent it by some of his officials to Damascus, to King Benhadad of Syria, the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion, with this message: ¹⁹ “Let us be allies, as our fathers were. This silver and gold is a present for you. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel, so that he will have to pull his troops out of my territory.”

²⁰ King Benhadad agreed to Asa's proposal and sent his commanding officers and their armies to attack the cities of Israel. They captured Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, the area near Lake Galilee, and the whole territory of Naphtali. ²¹ When King Baasha heard what had happened, he stopped fortifying Ramah and went to Tirzah.

²² Then King Asa sent out an order throughout all of Judah requiring everyone, without exception, to help carry away from Ramah the stones and timber that Baasha had been using to fortify it. With this material Asa fortified Mizpah and Geba, a city in the territory of Benjamin.

²³ Everything else that King Asa did, his brave deeds and the towns he fortified, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. But in his old age he was crippled by a foot disease. ²⁴ Asa died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him as king.

Peter and Cornelius

10 There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, who was a captain in the Roman army regiment called “The Italian Regiment.” ² He was a religious man; he and his whole family worshiped God. He also did much to help the Jewish poor people and was constantly praying to God. ³ It was about three o'clock one afternoon when he had a vision, in which he clearly saw an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius!”

⁴ He stared at the angel in fear and said, “What is it, sir?”

The angel answered, “God is pleased with your prayers and works of charity, and is ready to answer you. ⁵ And now send some men to Joppa for a certain man whose full name is Simon Peter. ⁶ He is a guest in the home of a tanner of leather named Simon, who lives by the sea.” ⁷ Then the angel went away, and Cornelius called two of his house servants and a soldier, a religious man who was one of his personal attendants. ⁸ He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.

^9 (A)The next day, as they were on their way and coming near Joppa, Peter went up on the roof of the house about noon in order to pray. ¹⁰ He became hungry and wanted something to eat; while the food was being prepared, he had a vision. ¹¹ He saw heaven opened and something coming down that looked like a large sheet being lowered by its four corners to the earth. ¹² In it were all kinds of animals, reptiles, and wild birds. ¹³ A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat!”

¹⁴ But Peter said, “Certainly not, Lord! I have never eaten anything ritually unclean or defiled.”

¹⁵ The voice spoke to him again, “Do not consider anything unclean that God has declared clean.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and then the thing was taken back up into heaven.

¹⁷ While Peter was wondering about the meaning of this vision, the men sent by Cornelius had learned where Simon's house was, and they were now standing in front of the gate. ¹⁸ They called out and asked, “Is there a guest here by the name of Simon Peter?”

¹⁹ Peter was still trying to understand what the vision meant, when the Spirit said, “Listen! Three^[a] men are here looking for you. ²⁰ So get ready and go down, and do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.” ²¹ So Peter went down and said to the men, “I am the man you are looking for. Why have you come?”

²² “Captain Cornelius sent us,” they answered. “He is a good man who worships God and is highly respected by all the Jewish people. An angel of God told him to invite you to his house, so that he could hear what you have to say.” ²³ Peter invited the men in and had them spend the night there.

The next day he got ready and went with them; and some of the believers from Joppa went along with him.

In Praise of Living in Peace^[a]

⁷ Respected people do not tell lies, and fools have nothing worthwhile to say.

⁸ Some people think a bribe works like magic; they believe it can do anything.

²⁰ When the people of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, they invited him to a meeting of the people and made him king of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to David's descendants.

Shemaiah's Prophecy^(A)

²¹ When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he called together 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He intended to go to war and restore his control over the northern tribes of Israel. ²² But God told the prophet Shemaiah ²³ to give this message to Rehoboam and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin: ²⁴ “Do not attack your own relatives, the people of Israel. Go home, all of you. What has happened is my will.” They all obeyed the Lord's command and went back home.

Jeroboam Turns Away from God

²⁵ King Jeroboam of Israel fortified the town of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there for a while. Then he left and fortified the town of Penuel. ^26-27 He said to himself, “As things are now, if my people go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to the Lord in the Temple there, they will transfer their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah and will kill me.”

^28 (B)After thinking it over, he made two bull-calves of gold and said to his people, “You have been going long enough to Jerusalem to worship. People of Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt!” ²⁹ He placed one of the gold bull-calves in Bethel and the other in Dan. ³⁰ And so the people sinned, going to worship in Bethel and in Dan.^{[a] 31} Jeroboam also built places of worship on hilltops, and he chose priests from families who were not of the tribe of Levi.

Worship at Bethel Is Condemned

^32 (C)Jeroboam also instituted a religious festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival in Judah. On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the gold bull-calves he had made, and he placed there in Bethel the priests serving at the places of worship he had built. ³³ And on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the day that he himself had set, he went to Bethel and offered a sacrifice on the altar in celebration of the festival he had instituted for the people of Israel.

13 At the Lord's command a prophet from Judah went to Bethel and arrived there as Jeroboam stood at the altar to offer the sacrifice. ^2 (D)Following the Lord's command, the prophet denounced the altar: “O altar, altar, this is what the Lord says: A child, whose name will be Josiah, will be born to the family of David. He will slaughter on you the priests serving at the pagan altars who offer sacrifices on you, and he will burn human bones on you.” ³ And the prophet went on to say, “This altar will fall apart, and the ashes on it will be scattered. Then you will know that the Lord has spoken through me.”

⁴ When King Jeroboam heard this, he pointed at him and ordered, “Seize that man!” At once the king's arm became paralyzed so that he couldn't pull it back. ⁵ The altar suddenly fell apart and the ashes spilled to the ground, as the prophet had predicted in the name of the Lord. ⁶ King Jeroboam said to the prophet, “Please pray for me to the Lord your God, and ask him to heal my arm!”

The prophet prayed to the Lord, and the king's arm was healed. ⁷ Then the king said to the prophet, “Come home with me and have something to eat. I will reward you for what you have done.”

⁸ The prophet answered, “Even if you gave me half of your wealth, I would not go with you or eat or drink anything with you. ⁹ The Lord has commanded me not to eat or drink a thing, and not to return home the same way I came.” ¹⁰ So he did not go back the same way he had come, but by another road.

The Old Prophet of Bethel

¹¹ At that time there was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons^[b] came and told him what the prophet from Judah had done in Bethel that day and what he had said to King Jeroboam. ¹² “Which way did he go when he left?” the old prophet asked them. They showed him^[c] the road ¹³ and he told them to saddle his donkey for him. They did so, and he rode off ¹⁴ down the road after the prophet from Judah and found him sitting under an oak tree. “Are you the prophet from Judah?” he asked.

“I am,” the man answered.

¹⁵ “Come home and have a meal with me,” he said.

¹⁶ But the prophet from Judah answered, “I can't go home with you or accept your hospitality. And I won't eat or drink anything with you here, ¹⁷ because the Lord has commanded me not to eat or drink a thing, and not to return home the same way I came.”

¹⁸ Then the old prophet from Bethel said to him, “I, too, am a prophet just like you, and at the Lord's command an angel told me to take you home with me and offer you my hospitality.” But the old prophet was lying.

¹⁹ So the prophet from Judah went home with the old prophet and had a meal with him. ²⁰ As they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet, ²¹ and he cried out to the prophet from Judah, “The Lord says that you disobeyed him and did not do what he commanded. ²² Instead, you returned and ate a meal in a place he had ordered you not to eat in. Because of this you will be killed, and your body will not be buried in your family grave.”

²³ After they had finished eating, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet from Judah, ²⁴ who rode off. On the way a lion met him and killed him. His body lay on the road, and the donkey and the lion stood beside it. ²⁵ Some men passed by and saw the body on the road, with the lion standing near by. They went on into Bethel and reported what they had seen.

²⁶ When the old prophet heard about it, he said, “That is the prophet who disobeyed the Lord's command! And so the Lord sent the lion to attack and kill him, just as the Lord said he would.” ²⁷ Then he said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey for me.” They did so, ²⁸ and he rode off and found the prophet's body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion still standing by it. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey. ²⁹ The old prophet picked up the body, put it on the donkey, and brought it back to Bethel to mourn over it and bury it. ³⁰ He buried it in his own family grave, and he and his sons mourned over it, saying, “Oh my brother, my brother!” ³¹ After the burial the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in this grave and lay my body next to his. ³² The words that he spoke at the Lord's command against the altar in Bethel and against all the places of worship in the towns of Samaria will surely come true.”

Jeroboam's Fatal Sin

³³ King Jeroboam of Israel still did not turn from his evil ways but continued to choose priests from ordinary families to serve at the altars he had built. He ordained as priest anyone who wanted to be one. ³⁴ This sin on his part brought about the ruin and total destruction of his dynasty.

Saul in Jerusalem

²⁶ Saul went to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples. But they would not believe that he was a disciple, and they were all afraid of him. ²⁷ Then Barnabas came to his help and took him to the apostles. He explained to them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road and that the Lord had spoken to him. He also told them how boldly Saul had preached in the name of Jesus in Damascus. ²⁸ And so Saul stayed with them and went all over Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹ He also talked and disputed with the Greek-speaking Jews, but they tried to kill him. ³⁰ When the believers found out about this, they took Saul to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.

³¹ And so it was that the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had a time of peace. Through the help of the Holy Spirit it was strengthened and grew in numbers, as it lived in reverence for the Lord.

Peter in Lydda and Joppa

³² Peter traveled everywhere, and on one occasion he went to visit God's people who lived in Lydda. ³³ There he met a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had not been able to get out of bed for eight years. ³⁴ “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ makes you well. Get up and make your bed.” At once Aeneas got up. ³⁵ All the people living in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

³⁶ In Joppa there was a woman named Tabitha, who was a believer. (Her name in Greek is Dorcas, meaning “a deer.”) She spent all her time doing good and helping the poor. ³⁷ At that time she got sick and died. Her body was washed and laid in a room upstairs. ³⁸ Joppa was not very far from Lydda, and when the believers in Joppa heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him with the message, “Please hurry and come to us.” ³⁹ So Peter got ready and went with them. When he arrived, he was taken to the room upstairs, where all the widows crowded around him, crying and showing him all the shirts and coats that Dorcas had made while she was alive. ⁴⁰ Peter put them all out of the room, and knelt down and prayed; then he turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. ⁴¹ Peter reached over and helped her get up. Then he called all the believers, including the widows, and presented her alive to them. ⁴² The news about this spread all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. ⁴³ Peter stayed on in Joppa for many days with a tanner of leather named Simon.

In Praise of the Temple

⁶ Grandparents are proud of their grandchildren, just as children are proud of their parents.

Solomon Turns Away from God

11 ^(A)Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the daughter of the king of Egypt he married Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon. ^2 (B)He married them even though the Lord had commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with these people, because they would cause the Israelites to give their loyalty to other gods. ³ Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines. They made him turn away from God, ⁴ and by the time he was old they had led him into the worship of foreign gods. He was not faithful to the Lord his God, as his father David had been. ⁵ He worshiped Astarte, the goddess of Sidon, and Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon. ⁶ He sinned against the Lord and was not true to him as his father David had been. ⁷ On the mountain east of Jerusalem he built a place to worship Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and a place to worship Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon. ⁸ He also built places of worship where all his foreign wives could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their own gods.

^9-10 Even though the Lord, the God of Israel, had appeared to Solomon twice and had commanded him not to worship foreign gods, Solomon did not obey the Lord but turned away from him. So the Lord was angry with Solomon ¹¹ and said to him, “Because you have deliberately broken your covenant with me and disobeyed my commands, I promise that I will take the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your officials. ¹² However, for the sake of your father David I will not do this in your lifetime, but during the reign of your son. ¹³ And I will not take the whole kingdom away from him; instead, I will leave him one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have made my own.”

Solomon's Enemies

¹⁴ So the Lord caused Hadad, of the royal family of Edom, to turn against Solomon. ^15-16 Long before this, when David had conquered Edom, Joab the commander of his army had gone there to bury the dead. He and his men remained in Edom six months, and during that time they killed every male in Edom ¹⁷ except Hadad and some of his father's Edomite servants, who escaped to Egypt. (At that time Hadad was just a child.) ¹⁸ They left Midian and went to Paran, where some other men joined them. Then they traveled to Egypt and went to the king, who gave Hadad some land and a house and provided him with food. ¹⁹ Hadad won the friendship of the king, and the king gave his sister-in-law, the sister of Queen Tahpenes, to Hadad in marriage. ²⁰ She bore him a son, Genubath, who was raised by the queen in the palace, where he lived with the king's sons.

²¹ When the news reached Hadad in Egypt that David had died and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to the king, “Let me go back to my own country.”

²² “Why?” the king asked. “Have I failed to give you something? Is that why you want to go back home?”

“Just let me go,” Hadad answered the king. And he went back to his country.^[a]

As king of Edom, Hadad was an evil, bitter enemy of Israel.^[b]

²³ God also caused Rezon son of Eliada to turn against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah, ²⁴ and had become the leader of a gang of outlaws. (This happened after David had defeated Hadadezer and had slaughtered his Syrian allies.) Rezon and his gang went and lived in Damascus, where his followers made him king of Syria. ²⁵ He was an enemy of Israel during the lifetime of Solomon.

God's Promise to Jeroboam

²⁶ Another man who turned against King Solomon was one of his officials, Jeroboam son of Nebat, from Zeredah in Ephraim. His mother was a widow named Zeruah. ²⁷ This is the story of the revolt.

Solomon was filling in the land on the east side of Jerusalem and repairing the city walls. ²⁸ Jeroboam was an able young man, and when Solomon noticed how hard he worked, he put him in charge of all the forced labor in the territory of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. ²⁹ One day, as Jeroboam was traveling from Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh met him alone on the road in the open country. ³⁰ Ahijah took off the new robe he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces, ³¹ and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, because the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, ‘I am going to take the kingdom away from Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes. ³² Solomon will keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen to be my own from the whole land of Israel. ³³ I am going to do this because Solomon has rejected me and has^[c] worshiped foreign gods: Astarte, the goddess of Sidon; Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Molech, the god of Ammon. Solomon has^[d] disobeyed me; he has done wrong and has not kept my laws and commands as his father David did. ³⁴ But I will not take the whole kingdom away from Solomon, and I will keep him in power as long as he lives. This I will do for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose and who obeyed my laws and commands. ³⁵ I will take the kingdom away from Solomon's son and will give you ten tribes, ³⁶ but I will let Solomon's son keep one tribe, so that I will always have a descendant of my servant David ruling in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as the place where I am worshiped. ³⁷ Jeroboam, I will make you king of Israel, and you will rule over all the territory that you want. ³⁸ If you obey me completely, live by my laws, and win my approval by doing what I command, as my servant David did, I will always be with you. I will make you king of Israel and will make sure that your descendants rule after you, just as I have done for David. ³⁹ Because of Solomon's sin I will punish the descendants of David, but not for all time.’”

⁴⁰ And so Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he escaped to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until Solomon's death.

The Death of Solomon^(C)

⁴¹ Everything else that Solomon did, his career, and his wisdom, are all recorded in The History of Solomon. ⁴² He was king in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. ⁴³ He died and was buried in David's City, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

The Northern Tribes Revolt^(D)

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the people of northern Israel had gathered to make him king. ² When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had gone to Egypt to escape from King Solomon, heard this news, he returned from^[e] Egypt. ³ The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and then they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him, ⁴ “Your father Solomon treated us harshly and placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”

⁵ “Come back in three days and I will give you my answer,” he replied. So they left.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon's advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.

⁷ They replied, “If you want to serve this people well, give a favorable answer to their request, and they will always serve you loyally.”

⁸ But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers. ⁹ “What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”

¹⁰ They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist!’ ¹¹ Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!’”

¹² Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them. ¹³ The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the people, ¹⁴ as the younger men had advised. He said, “My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!” ¹⁵ It was the will of the Lord to bring about what he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. This is why the king did not pay any attention to the people.

^16 (E)When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let's go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!”

So the people of Israel rebelled, ¹⁷ leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, to go to the Israelites, but they stoned him to death. At this, Rehoboam hurriedly got in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Ever since that time the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been in rebellion against the dynasty of David.

The Conversion of Saul^(A)

9 In the meantime Saul kept up his violent threats of murder against the followers of the Lord. He went to the High Priest ² and asked for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he should find there any followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able to arrest them, both men and women, and bring them back to Jerusalem.

³ As Saul was coming near the city of Damascus, suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?”

⁵ “Who are you, Lord?” he asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you persecute,” the voice said. ⁶ “But get up and go into the city, where you will be told what you must do.”

⁷ The men who were traveling with Saul had stopped, not saying a word; they heard the voice but could not see anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground and opened his eyes, but could not see a thing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was not able to see, and during that time he did not eat or drink anything.

¹⁰ There was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. He had a vision, in which the Lord said to him, “Ananias!”

“Here I am, Lord,” he answered.

¹¹ The Lord said to him, “Get ready and go to Straight Street, and at the house of Judas ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying, ¹² and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and place his hands on him so that he might see again.”

¹³ Ananias answered, “Lord, many people have told me about this man and about all the terrible things he has done to your people in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And he has come to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who worship you.”

¹⁵ The Lord said to him, “Go, because I have chosen him to serve me, to make my name known to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel. ¹⁶ And I myself will show him all that he must suffer for my sake.”

¹⁷ So Ananias went, entered the house where Saul was, and placed his hands on him. “Brother Saul,” he said, “the Lord has sent me—Jesus himself, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here. He sent me so that you might see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ^18 (B)At once something like fish scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he was able to see again. He stood up and was baptized; ¹⁹ and after he had eaten, his strength came back.

Saul Preaches in Damascus

Saul stayed for a few days with the believers in Damascus. ²⁰ He went straight to the synagogues and began to preach that Jesus was the Son of God.

²¹ All who heard him were amazed and asked, “Isn't he the one who in Jerusalem was killing those who worship that man Jesus? And didn't he come here for the very purpose of arresting those people and taking them back to the chief priests?”

²² But Saul's preaching became even more powerful, and his proofs that Jesus was the Messiah were so convincing that the Jews who lived in Damascus could not answer him.

^23 (C)After many days had gone by, the Jews met together and made plans to kill Saul, ²⁴ but he was told of their plan. Day and night they watched the city gates in order to kill him. ²⁵ But one night Saul's followers took him and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

A Prayer of Humble Trust^[a]

⁴ Evil people listen to evil ideas, and liars listen to lies.

⁵ If you make fun of poor people, you insult the God who made them. You will be punished if you take pleasure in someone's misfortune.

God Appears to Solomon Again^(A)

9 After King Solomon had finished building the Temple and the palace and everything else he wanted to build, ^2 (B)the Lord appeared to him again, as he had in Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer. I consecrate this Temple which you have built as the place where I shall be worshiped forever. I will watch over it and protect it for all time. ⁴ If you will serve me in honesty and integrity, as your father David did, and if you obey my laws and do everything I have commanded you, ^5 (C)I will keep the promise I made to your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants. ⁶ But if you or your descendants stop following me, disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and worship other gods, ⁷ then I will remove my people Israel from the land that I have given them. I will also abandon this Temple which I have consecrated as the place where I am to be worshiped. People everywhere will ridicule Israel and treat her with contempt. ^8 (D)This Temple will become a pile of ruins,^[a] and everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed. ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this Temple?’ they will ask. ⁹ People will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They gave their allegiance to other gods and worshiped them. That is why the Lord has brought this disaster on them.’”

Solomon's Agreement with Hiram^(E)

¹⁰ It took Solomon twenty years to build the Temple and his palace. ¹¹ King Hiram of Tyre had provided him with all the cedar and pine and with all the gold he wanted for this work. After it was finished, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the region of Galilee. ¹² Hiram went to see them, and he did not like them. ¹³ So he said to Solomon, “So these, my brother, are the towns you have given me!” For this reason the area is still called Cabul.^{[b] 14} Hiram had sent Solomon almost five tons of gold.

Further Achievements of Solomon^(F)

¹⁵ King Solomon used forced labor to build the Temple and the palace, to fill in land on the east side of the city, and to build the city wall. He also used it to rebuild the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. (¹⁶ The king of Egypt had attacked Gezer and captured it, killing its inhabitants and setting fire to the city. Then he gave it as a wedding present to his daughter when she married Solomon, ¹⁷ and Solomon rebuilt it.) Using his forced labor, Solomon also rebuilt Lower Beth Horon, ¹⁸ Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness of Judah, ¹⁹ the cities where his supplies were kept, the cities for his horses and chariots, and everything else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and elsewhere in his kingdom. ^20-21 For his forced labor Solomon used the descendants of the people of Canaan whom the Israelites had not killed when they took possession of their land. These included Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, whose descendants continue to be slaves down to the present time. ²² Solomon did not make slaves of Israelites; they served as his soldiers, officers, commanders, chariot captains, and cavalry.

²³ There were 550 officials in charge of the forced labor working on Solomon's various building projects.

²⁴ Solomon filled in the land on the east side of the city, after his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, had moved from David's City to the palace Solomon built for her.

^25 (G)Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built to the Lord. He also burned incense^[c] to the Lord. And so he finished building the Temple.

²⁶ King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Eziongeber, which is near Elath on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land of Edom. ²⁷ King Hiram sent some experienced sailors from his fleet to serve with Solomon's men. ²⁸ They sailed to the land of Ophir and brought back to Solomon about sixteen tons of gold.

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba^(H)

10 ^(I)The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame,^[d] and she traveled to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions. ² She brought with her a large group of attendants, as well as camels loaded with spices, jewels, and a large amount of gold. When she and Solomon met, she asked him all the questions that she could think of. ³ He answered them all; there was nothing too difficult for him to explain. ⁴ The queen of Sheba heard Solomon's wisdom and saw the palace he had built. ⁵ She saw the food that was served at his table, the living quarters for his officials, the organization of his palace staff and the uniforms they wore, the servants who waited on him at feasts, and the sacrifices he offered in the Temple. It left her breathless and amazed. ⁶ She said to King Solomon, “What I heard in my own country about you^[e] and your wisdom is true! ⁷ But I couldn't believe it until I had come and seen it all for myself. But I didn't hear even half of it; your wisdom and wealth are much greater than what I was told. ⁸ How fortunate are your wives!^[f] And how fortunate your servants, who are always in your presence and are privileged to hear your wise sayings! ⁹ Praise the Lord your God! He has shown how pleased he is with you by making you king of Israel. Because his love for Israel is eternal, he has made you their king so that you can maintain law and justice.”

¹⁰ She presented to King Solomon the gifts she had brought: almost five tons of gold and a very large amount of spices and jewels. The amount of spices she gave him was by far the greatest that he ever received at any time.

(¹¹ Hiram's fleet, which had brought gold from Ophir, also brought from there a large amount of juniper wood and jewels. ¹² Solomon used the wood to build railings in the Temple and the palace, and also to make harps and lyres for the musicians. It was the finest juniper wood ever imported into Israel; none like it has ever been seen again.)

¹³ King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she asked for, besides all the other customary gifts that he had generously given her. Then she and her attendants returned to the land of Sheba.

King Solomon's Wealth^(J)

¹⁴ Every year King Solomon received over twenty-five tons of gold, ¹⁵ in addition to the taxes^[g] paid by merchants, the profits from trade, and tribute paid by the Arabian kings and the governors of the Israelite districts.

¹⁶ Solomon made two hundred large shields and had each one overlaid with almost fifteen pounds of gold. ¹⁷ He also made three hundred smaller shields, overlaying each one of them with nearly four pounds of gold. He had all these shields placed in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon.^[h]

¹⁸ He also had a large throne made. Part of it was covered with ivory and the rest of it was covered with the finest gold. ^19-20 The throne had six steps leading up to it, with the figure of a lion at each end of every step, a total of twelve lions. At the back of the throne was the figure of a bull's head, and beside each of the two armrests was the figure of a lion. No throne like this had ever existed in any other kingdom.

²¹ All of Solomon's drinking cups were made of gold, and all the utensils in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. No silver was used, since it was not considered valuable in Solomon's day. ²² He had a fleet of ocean-going ships sailing with Hiram's fleet. Every three years his fleet would return, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

²³ King Solomon was richer and wiser than any other king, ²⁴ and the whole world wanted to come and listen to the wisdom that God had given him. ²⁵ Everyone who came brought him a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons, spices, horses, and mules. This continued year after year.

^26 (K)Solomon built up a force of fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand cavalry horses. Some of them he kept in Jerusalem and the rest he stationed in various other cities. ^27 (L)During his reign silver was as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedar was as plentiful as ordinary sycamore in the foothills of Judah. ^28 (M)The king's agents controlled the export of horses from Musri^[i] and Cilicia,^{[j] 29} and the export of chariots from Egypt. They supplied the Hittite and Syrian kings with horses and chariots, selling chariots for 600 pieces of silver each and horses for 150 each.

¹⁴ The apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had received the word of God, so they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit. ¹⁶ For the Holy Spirit had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ Simon saw that the Spirit had been given to the believers when the apostles placed their hands on them. So he offered money to Peter and John, ¹⁹ and said, “Give this power to me too, so that anyone I place my hands on will receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰ But Peter answered him, “May you and your money go to hell, for thinking that you can buy God's gift with money! ²¹ You have no part or share in our work, because your heart is not right in God's sight. ²² Repent, then, of this evil plan of yours, and pray to the Lord that he will forgive you for thinking such a thing as this. ²³ For I see that you are full of bitter envy and are a prisoner of sin.”

²⁴ Simon said to Peter and John, “Please pray to the Lord for me, so that none of these things you spoke of will happen to me.”

²⁵ After they had given their testimony and proclaimed the Lord's message, Peter and John went back to Jerusalem. On their way they preached the Good News in many villages of Samaria.

Philip and the Ethiopian Official

²⁶ An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get ready and go south^[a] to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This road is not used nowadays.)^{[b] 27-28} So Philip got ready and went. Now an Ethiopian eunuch, who was an important official in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia, was on his way home. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God and was going back home in his carriage. As he rode along, he was reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that carriage and stay close to it.” ³⁰ Philip ran over and heard him reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. He asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ The official replied, “How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit in the carriage with him. ^32 (A)The passage of scripture which he was reading was this:

³⁴ The official asked Philip, “Tell me, of whom is the prophet saying this? Of himself or of someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak; starting from this passage of scripture, he told him the Good News about Jesus. ³⁶ As they traveled down the road, they came to a place where there was some water, and the official said, “Here is some water. What is to keep me from being baptized?” ^37 [c]

³⁸ The official ordered the carriage to stop, and both Philip and the official went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. The official did not see him again, but continued on his way, full of joy. ⁴⁰ Philip found himself in Azotus; he went on to Caesarea, and on the way he preached the Good News in every town.

A Prayer for Help

² A shrewd servant will gain authority over a master's worthless son and receive a part of the inheritance.

³ Gold and silver are tested by fire, and a person's heart is tested by the Lord.

Solomon's Palace

7 Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years. ^2-3 The Hall of the Forest of Lebanon^[a] was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It had three^[b] rows of cedar pillars, 15 in each row, with cedar beams resting on them. The ceiling was of cedar, extending over storerooms, which were supported by the pillars. ⁴ On each of the two side walls there were three rows of windows. ⁵ The doorways and the windows^[c] had rectangular frames, and the three rows of windows in each wall faced the opposite rows.

⁶ The Hall of Columns was 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. It had a covered porch, supported by columns.

⁷ The Throne Room, also called the Hall of Judgment, where Solomon decided cases, had cedar panels from the floor to the rafters.^[d]

^8 (A)Solomon's own quarters, in another court behind the Hall of Judgment, were made like the other buildings. He also built the same kind of house for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt.

⁹ All these buildings and the great court were made of fine stones from the foundations to the eaves. The stones were prepared at the quarry and cut to measure, with their inner and outer sides trimmed with saws. ¹⁰ The foundations were made of large stones prepared at the quarry, some of them twelve feet long and others fifteen feet long. ¹¹ On top of them were other stones, cut to measure, and cedar beams. ¹² The palace court, the inner court of the Temple, and the entrance room of the Temple had walls with one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of cut stones.

Huram's Task

¹³ King Solomon sent for a man named Huram, a craftsman living in the city of Tyre, who was skilled in bronze work. ¹⁴ His father, who was no longer living, was from Tyre, and had also been a skilled bronze craftsman; his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. Huram was an intelligent and experienced craftsman. He accepted King Solomon's invitation to be in charge of all the bronze work.

The Two Bronze Columns^(B)

¹⁵ Huram cast two bronze columns, each one 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference,^[e] and placed them at the entrance of the Temple. ¹⁶ He also made two bronze capitals, each one 7½ feet tall, to be placed on top of the columns. ¹⁷ The top of each column was decorated with a design of interwoven chains^{[f] 18} and two rows of bronze pomegranates.

¹⁹ The capitals were shaped like lilies, 6 feet tall, ²⁰ and were placed on a rounded section which was above the chain design. There were 200 pomegranates in two rows around each^[g] capital.

²¹ Huram placed these two bronze columns in front of the entrance of the Temple: the one on the south side was named Jachin^[h] and the one on the north was named Boaz.^{[i] 22} The lily-shaped bronze capitals were on top of the columns.

And so the work on the columns was completed.

The Bronze Tank^(C)

²³ Huram made a round tank of bronze, 7½ feet deep, 15 feet in diameter, and 45 feet in circumference. ²⁴ All around the outer edge of the rim of the tank^[j] were two rows of bronze gourds, which had been cast all in one piece with the rest of the tank. ²⁵ The tank rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outward, three facing in each direction. ²⁶ The sides of the tank were 3 inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outward like the petals of a lily. The tank held about 10,000 gallons.

The Bronze Carts

²⁷ Huram also made ten bronze carts; each was 6 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4½ feet high. ²⁸ They were made of square panels which were set in frames, ²⁹ with the figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures on the panels; and on the frames, above and underneath the lions and bulls, there were spiral figures in relief. ³⁰ Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. At the four corners were bronze supports for a basin; the supports were decorated with spiral figures in relief. ³¹ There was a circular frame on top for the basin. It projected upward 18 inches from the top of the cart and 7 inches down into it. It had carvings around it. ³² The wheels were 25 inches high; they were under the panels, and the axles were of one piece with the carts. ³³ The wheels were like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of bronze. ³⁴ There were four supports at the bottom corners of each cart, which were of one piece with the cart. ³⁵ There was a 9-inch band around the top of each cart; its supports and the panels were of one piece with the cart. ³⁶ The supports and panels were decorated with figures of winged creatures, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was space for them, with spiral figures all around. ³⁷ This, then, is how the carts were made; they were all alike, having the same size and shape.

^38 (D)Huram also made ten basins, one for each cart. Each basin was 6 feet in diameter and held 200 gallons. ³⁹ He placed five of the carts on the south side of the Temple, and the other five on the north side; the tank he placed at the southeast corner.

Summary List of Temple Furnishings^(E)

^40-45 Huram also made pots, shovels, and bowls. He completed all his work for King Solomon for the Lord's Temple. This is what he made:

All this equipment for the Temple, which Huram made for King Solomon, was of polished bronze. ⁴⁶ The king had it all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zarethan, in the Jordan Valley. ⁴⁷ Solomon did not have these bronze objects weighed, because there were too many of them, and so their weight was never determined.

^48 (F)Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the Temple: the altar, the table for the bread offered to God, ^49 (G)the ten lampstands that stood in front of the Most Holy Place, five on the south side and five on the north; the flowers, lamps, and tongs; ⁵⁰ the cups, lamp snuffers, bowls, dishes for incense, and the pans used for carrying live coals; and the hinges for the doors of the Most Holy Place and of the outer doors of the Temple. All these furnishings were made of gold.

^51 (H)When King Solomon finished all the work on the Temple, he placed in the Temple storerooms all the things that his father David had dedicated to the Lord—the silver, gold, and other articles.

^30 (A)“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ Moses was amazed by what he saw, and went near the bush to get a better look. But he heard the Lord's voice: ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and dared not look. ³³ The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have seen the cruel suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans, and I have come down to set them free. Come now; I will send you to Egypt.’

^35 (B)“Moses is the one who was rejected by the people of Israel. ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?’ they asked. He is the one whom God sent to rule the people and set them free with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush. ^36 (C)He led the people out of Egypt, performing miracles and wonders in Egypt and at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. ^37 (D)Moses is the one who said to the people of Israel, ‘God will send you a prophet, just as he sent me,^[a] and he will be one of your own people.’ ^38 (E)He is the one who was with the people of Israel assembled in the desert; he was there with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and he received God's living messages to pass on to us.

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to obey him; they pushed him aside and wished that they could go back to Egypt. ^40 (F)So they said to Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who will lead us. We do not know what has happened to that man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’ ^41 (G)It was then that they made an idol in the shape of a bull, offered sacrifice to it, and had a feast in honor of what they themselves had made. ^42 (H)So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

^44 (I)“Our ancestors had the Tent of God's presence with them in the desert. It had been made as God had told Moses to make it, according to the pattern that Moses had been shown. ^45 (J)Later on, our ancestors who received the tent from their fathers carried it with them when they went with Joshua and took over the land from the nations that God drove out as they advanced. And it stayed there until the time of David. ^46 (K)He won God's favor and asked God to allow him to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[b] 47 (L)}But it was Solomon who built him a house.

⁴⁸ “But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands; as the prophet says,

The Reward of Obedience to the Lord

³¹ Long life is the reward of the righteous; gray hair is a glorious crown.

³² It is better to be patient than powerful. It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities.

³³ People cast lots to learn God's will, but God himself determines the answer.

Alliance with King Hiram

5 Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always been a friend of David. ² Then Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying, ³ “You know that David my father could not build a house (temple) for the Name (Presence) of the Lord his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the Lord put his enemies under his feet.^{(A) 4} But now that the Lord my God has given me rest [from war] on every side, there is neither adversary nor misfortune [confronting me]. ⁵ Behold, I intend to build a house (temple) to the Name of the Lord my God, just as the Lord said to my father David: ‘Your son whom I will put on your throne in your place shall build the house for My Name and Presence.’ ⁶ So now, command that they cut cedar trees from Lebanon for me, and my servants will join your servants, and I will give you whatever wages you set for your servants. For you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the men of Sidon.”

⁷ When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given David a wise son [to be king] over this great people.” ⁸ So Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you sent to me; I will do everything you wish concerning the cedar and cypress timber. ⁹ My servants will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the [Mediterranean] sea, and I will have them made into rafts to go by sea to the place (port) that you direct me; then I will have them broken up there, and you shall carry them away. Then you shall ^[a]return the favor by providing food for my household.” ¹⁰ So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and cypress timber he desired, ¹¹ and Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 ^[b]kors of wheat as food for his household, and 20 kors of pure [olive] oil. Solomon gave all these to Hiram each year. ¹² The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, just as He promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

Conscription of Laborers

¹³ King Solomon levied forced laborers from all Israel; and the forced laborers numbered 30,000 men. ¹⁴ He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts; one month they were in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced laborers. ¹⁵ Solomon had 70,000 burden bearers (transporters) and 80,000 stonemasons in the hill country [of Judah], ¹⁶ besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were in charge of the project and who were in charge of the people doing the work. ¹⁷ The king gave orders, and they quarried great ^[c]stones, valuable stones, to lay the foundation of the house (temple) with cut stones. ¹⁸ So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men of ^[d]Gebal cut and chiseled the stones, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house (temple).

The Building of the Temple

6 ^[e]Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv (April-May) which is the second month, that he began to build the Lord’s house (temple). ² The length of the house which King Solomon built for the Lord was ^[f]sixty cubits (90 ft.), its width twenty (30 ft.), and its height thirty cubits (45 ft.). ³ The porch in front of the main room of the house (temple) was twenty cubits long, corresponding to the width of the house, and its depth in front of the house was ten cubits. ⁴ He also made framed (artistic) window openings for the house. ⁵ Against the wall of the house he built ^[g]extensions around the walls of the house, around both the main room (Holy Place) and the ^[h]Holy of Holies; and he made side chambers all around. ⁶ The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made offsets (niches) in the walls all around on the outside of the house so that the supporting beams would not be inserted into the walls of the house.

⁷ While it was being built, the house was built of stone prepared and finished (precut) at the quarry, and no hammer, axe, or iron tool of any kind was heard in the house while it was under construction.

⁸ The entrance to the lowest side chamber was on the right [or south] side of the house; and they would go up winding stairs to the middle [level], and from the middle to the third. ⁹ So Solomon built the house (temple) and finished it, and roofed the house with beams and boards of cedar. ¹⁰ Then he built the extensions [of rooms] against the entire house, each [story] five cubits high; and they were attached to the house with timbers of cedar.

¹¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, ¹² “Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes and execute My precepts and keep all My commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word (promises) with you which I made to David your father. ¹³ I will dwell among the sons (descendants) of Israel, and will not abandon My people Israel.”

¹⁴ So Solomon built the house (temple) and finished it. ¹⁵ He built the walls of the interior of the house [that is, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies] with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the rafters of the ceiling. He overlaid the interior with wood, and he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress. ¹⁶ He built twenty cubits on the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling; he built its interior as the [inner] sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. ¹⁷ The [rest of the] house, that is, the temple in front of the Holy of Holies, was forty cubits long. ¹⁸ The cedar on the house within had wood carvings in the shape of gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was visible. ¹⁹ Then he prepared the Holy of Holies within the house in order to put the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. ²⁰ The Holy of Holies was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height (a cube), and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the cedar altar [with gold]. ²¹ Solomon overlaid the interior of the house with pure gold, and he drew ^[i]chains of gold across the front of the Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary), and he overlaid it with gold. ²² Then he overlaid the entire house with gold, until the whole house was finished. He also overlaid the entire [incense] altar which was by the Holy of Holies with gold.

²³ Within the Holy of Holies he made two ^[j]cherubim (sculptured figures) of olive wood, each ten cubits high. ^24 [k]One wing of the cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing was also five cubits long; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. ²⁵ The [wingspan of the] other cherub was also ten cubits. The measurements and cut (shape) of the two cherubim were the same; ²⁶ the height of the one cherub was ten cubits, as was the other. ²⁷ He put the cherubim [above the ark] inside the innermost room of the house, and their wings were spread out so that the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub was touching the other wall; and their inner wings were touching ^[l]each other in the middle of the house. ²⁸ Solomon also overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹ He carved all the walls of the house all around with carved engravings of cherubim, palm-shaped decorations, and open flowers, [both] the inner and the outer sanctuaries. ³⁰ He overlaid the floor of the house with gold, [both] the inner and outer sanctuaries.

³¹ For the entrance of the Holy of Holies he made two [folding] doors of olive wood, the lintel (header above the door) and five-sided doorposts (frames). ³² So he made two doors of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm-shaped decorations, and open flowers; and overlaid them with gold; and he hammered out overlays of gold on the cherubim and palm decorations.

³³ Also he made for the entrance of the [outer] sanctuary (the Holy Place) four-sided doorposts (frames) of olive wood ³⁴ and two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door turned on pivots and were folding, and the two leaves of the other door also turned on pivots. ³⁵ He carved cherubim, palm-shaped decorations, and open flowers on the doors, and overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the carved work. ³⁶ He built the inner courtyard with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.

³⁷ In the fourth year [of King Solomon’s reign] the foundation of the Lord’s house was laid, in the [second] month, Ziv (April-May). ³⁸ In the eleventh year [of King Solomon’s reign] in the month of Bul (October-November), that is, the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and in accordance with all its specifications. So he built it in seven years.

Stephen’s Defense

7 Now the ^[a]high priest asked [Stephen], “Are these charges true?”

² And he answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory [the Shekinah, the radiance of God] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,^{(A) 3} and He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.’^{(B) 4} Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God sent him to this country in which you now live.^{(C) 5} But He did not give him inheritable property, not even enough ground to take a step on, yet He promised that He would give it to Him as a possession, and to his descendants after him.^{(D) 6} And this is, in effect, what God spoke [to him]: That his descendants would be aliens (strangers) in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ ‘And I will judge any nation to whom they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me [in worship] in this place.’^{(E) 8} And God gave Abraham a covenant [a formal agreement to be strictly observed] of [which] circumcision [was the sign]; and so [under these circumstances] Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [became the father] of ^[b]Jacob, and Jacob [became the father] of the ^[c]twelve patriarchs.^(F)

⁹ “The [ten elder] patriarchs, overwhelmed with jealousy, sold [their younger brother] Joseph into [slavery in] Egypt; but God was with him,^{(G) 10} and He rescued him from all his suffering, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made Joseph governor over Egypt and over his entire household.^(H)

¹¹ “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great distress and our fathers could not find food [for their households and livestock].^{(I) 12} But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.^{(J) 13} And on the second visit Joseph identified himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family and background were revealed to Pharaoh.^{(K) 14} Then Joseph sent and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.^{(L) 15} And Jacob (Israel) went down into Egypt, and ^[d]there he died, as did our fathers;^{(M) 16} and [from Egypt] ^[e]their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.^(N)

¹⁷ “But as the time [for the fulfillment] of the promise which God had made to Abraham was approaching, the [Hebrew] people increased and multiplied in Egypt,^{(O) 18} until [the time when] there arose another king over egypt who did not know joseph [nor his history and the merit of his service to Egypt].^{(P) 19} He shrewdly exploited our race and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to expose their [male] babies so that they would die.^{(Q) 20} It was at this [critical] time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and for three months he was nourished in his father’s house.^{(R) 21} Then when he was set outside [to die], Pharaoh’s daughter rescued him and claimed him for herself, and cared for him as her own son.^{(S) 22} So Moses was educated in all the wisdom and culture of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. ²³ But when he reached the age of forty, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. ²⁴ And when he saw one [of them] being treated unfairly, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking and killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ He expected his countrymen to understand that God was granting them freedom through him [assuming that they would accept him], but they did not understand. ²⁶ Then on the next day he suddenly appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?’ ²⁷ But the man who was injuring his neighbor pushed Moses away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ At this remark Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.^(T)

Prosperity Comes from the Lord.

A Song of ^[a]Ascents. Of Solomon.