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I. The Reign of Solomon
Chapter 1
David’s Old Age. When King David was old and advanced in years, though they covered him with blankets he could not get warm.
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However, Zadok the priest, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Rei, and David’s warriors did not support Adonijah.
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Solomon Proclaimed King. Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother: “Have you not heard that Adonijah, son of Haggith, has become king, and our lord David does not know?
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Go, visit King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord king, swear to your handmaid: Your son Solomon shall be king after me; it is he who shall sit upon my throne? Why, then, has Adonijah become king?’
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King David answered, “Call Bathsheba here.” When she entered the king’s presence and stood before him,
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Bowing to the floor in homage to the king, Bathsheba said, “May my lord, King David, live forever!”
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Then King David said, “Call Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, son of Jehoiada.” When they had entered the king’s presence,
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As the Lord has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne even greater than that of my lord, King David!”
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So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites went down, and mounting Solomon on King David’s mule, escorted him to Gihon.
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Jonathan answered Adonijah, “Hardly! Our lord, King David, has made Solomon king.
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and moreover the king’s servants have come to pay their respects to our lord, King David, saying, ‘May your God make Solomon’s name more famous than your name, his throne greater than your throne!’ And the king in his bed did homage.
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Chapter 2
David’s Last Instructions and Death. When the time of David’s death drew near, he gave these instructions to Solomon his son:
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David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David.
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David was king over Israel for forty years: he was king seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. The Kingdom Made Secure.
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Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingship was established.
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And now, as the Lord lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father and made for me a house as he promised, this day shall Adonijah be put to death.”
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The king said to Abiathar the priest: “Go to your estate in Anathoth. Though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before David my father and shared in all the hardships my father endured.”
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The Lord will bring blood upon his own head, because he struck down two men better and more just than himself, and slew them with the sword without my father David’s knowledge: Abner, son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa, son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.
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Their blood will be upon the head of Joab and his descendants. But upon David and his descendants, upon his house and his throne, there shall be peace forever from the Lord.”
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And the king said to Shimei: “In your heart you know very well the evil that you did to David my father. Now the Lord is bringing your own evil upon your head.
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But King Solomon shall be blessed, and David’s throne shall be established before the Lord forever.”
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Chapter 3
Early Promise of Solomon’s Reign. Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He married the daughter of Pharaoh and brought her to the City of David, until he should finish building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem.
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Although Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, he offered sacrifice and burned incense on the high places.
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Solomon answered: “You have shown great kindness to your servant, David my father, because he walked before you with fidelity, justice, and an upright heart; and you have continued this great kindness toward him today, giving him a son to sit upon his throne.
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Now, Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed David my father; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act—
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And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments, as David your father did, I will give you a long life.
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When Hiram, king of Tyre, heard that Solomon had been anointed king in place of his father, he sent an embassy to him; for Hiram had always been David’s friend.
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“You know that David my father, because of the wars that beset him, could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God until such time as the Lord should put his enemies under the soles of his feet.
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So I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God, as the Lord said to David my father: Your son whom I will put upon your throne in your place shall build the house for my name.
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When Hiram had heard the words of Solomon, he was overjoyed, and said, “Blessed be the Lord this day, who has given David a wise son over this numerous people.”
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As to this house you are building—if you walk in my statutes, carry out my ordinances, and observe all my commands, walking in them, I will fulfill toward you my word which I spoke to David your father.
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When all the work undertaken by King Solomon in the house of the Lord was completed, he brought in the votive offerings of his father David, and put the silver, gold, and other articles in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.
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Chapter 8
Dedication of the Temple. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the princes in the ancestral houses of the Israelites. They came to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the city of David (which is Zion).
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He said: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth spoke a promise to David my father and by his hand fulfilled it, saying:
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Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city out of any tribe of Israel for the building of a house, that my name might be there; but I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.
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When David my father wished to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel,
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Now the Lord has fulfilled the word he spoke: I have succeeded David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord has spoken, and I have built this house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.
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the covenant that you kept toward your servant, David my father, what you promised him; your mouth has spoken and your hand has fulfilled this very day.
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And now, Lord, God of Israel, keep toward your servant, David my father, what you promised: There shall never be wanting someone from your line to sit before me on the throne of Israel, provided that your descendants keep to their way, walking before me as you have.
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Now, God of Israel, may the words you spoke to your servant, David my father, be confirmed.
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On the eighth day he dismissed the people, who blessed the king and went to their tents, rejoicing and glad of heart because of all the blessings the Lord had given to David his servant and to his people Israel.
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As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, wholeheartedly and uprightly, doing all that I have commanded you, keeping my statutes and ordinances,
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I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father: There shall never be wanting someone from your line on the throne of Israel.
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As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the City of David to her house, which he had built for her, Solomon built Millo.
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When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to follow other gods, and his heart was not entirely with the Lord, his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
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Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he did not follow the Lord unreservedly as David his father had done.
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But I will not do this during your lifetime, for the sake of David your father; I will tear it away from your son’s hand.
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Nor will I tear away the whole kingdom. I will give your son one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. Threats to Solomon’s Kingdom.
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Earlier, when David had conquered Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, while going to bury the slain, killed every male in Edom.
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When Hadad in Egypt heard that David rested with his ancestors and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, he said to Pharaoh, “Give me leave to return to my own land.”
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when David was slaughtering them. Rezon gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding band. They went to Damascus, settled there, and made him king in Damascus.
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This is how he came to rebel. King Solomon was building Millo, closing up the breach of the City of David, his father.
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He shall have one tribe for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
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For they have forsaken me and have bowed down to Astarte, goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, god of Moab, and Milcom, god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in my ways or done what is right in my eyes, according to my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did.
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Yet I will not take any of the kingdom from Solomon himself, but will keep him a prince as long as he lives, for the sake of David my servant, whom I have chosen, who kept my commandments and statutes.
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I will give his son one tribe, that David my servant may always have a holding before me in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen, to set my name there.
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If, then, you heed all that I command you, walking in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments like David my servant, I will be with you. I will build a lasting house for you, just as I did for David; I will give Israel to you.
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I will humble David’s line for this, but not forever.”
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Solomon rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David, his father, and Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.
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When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king: “What share have we in David? We have no heritage in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now look to your own house, David.” So Israel went off to their tents.
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And so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
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When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to an assembly and made him king over all Israel. None remained loyal to the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone. Divine Approval.
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Jeroboam thought to himself: “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
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He cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord: “Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: A child shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, who shall slaughter upon you the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and they shall burn human bones upon you.”
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I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. Yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with his whole heart, doing only what is right in my sight.
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Rehoboam rested with his ancestors; he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. His son Abijam succeeded him as king.
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He followed all the sins his father had committed before him, and his heart was not entirely with the Lord, his God, as was the heart of David his father.
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Yet for David’s sake the Lord, his God, gave him a holding in Jerusalem, raising up his son after him and permitting Jerusalem to endure,
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because David had done what was right in the sight of the Lord and did not disobey any of his commands as long as he lived, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.
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Abijam rested with his ancestors; they buried him in the City of David, and his son Asa succeeded him as king.
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Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord like David his father,
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Asa rested with his ancestors; he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David his father, and his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him as king.
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Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors; he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David his father, and his son Jehoram succeeded him as king. Reign of Ahaziah.