Bible-Reading.comII Chronicles 7
1Now when Solomon's prayers were ended, fire came down from heaven, burning up all the offerings; and the house was full of the glory of the Lord.
2And the priests were not able to go into the house of the Lord, for the Lord's house was full of the glory of the Lord.
3And all the children of Israel were looking on when the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house; and they went down on their knees, with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising the Lord, and saying, He is good; for his mercy is unchanging for ever.
4Then the king and all the people made offerings before the Lord.
5King Solomon made an offering of twenty-two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people kept the feast of the opening of the house of God.
6And the priests were in their places, and the Levites with their instruments of music for the Lord's song, which David the king had made for the praise of the Lord whose mercy is unchanging for ever, when David gave praise by their hand; and the priests were sounding horns before them; and all Israel were on their feet.
7Then Solomon made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering the burned offerings there, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar which Solomon had made for all the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat.
8So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as the river of Egypt.
9And on the eighth day they had a holy meeting; the offerings for making the altar holy went on for seven days, and the feast for seven days.
10And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people.
11So Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house; and everything which it was in his mind to make in the house of the Lord and for himself had been well done.
12Now the Lord came to Solomon in a vision by night, and said to him, I have given ear to your prayer, and have taken this place for myself as a house where offerings are to be made.
13If, at my word, heaven is shut up, so that there is no rain, or if I send locusts on the land for its destruction, or if I send disease on my people;
14If my people, on whom my name is named, make themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to their land.
15Now my eyes will be open and my ears awake to the prayers made in this place.
16For I have taken this house for myself and made it holy, so that my name may be there for ever; and my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.
17And as for you, if you will go on your way before me as David your father did, doing whatever I have given you orders to do and keeping my laws and my decisions:
18Then I will make strong the seat of your kingdom, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be ruler in Israel.
19But if you are turned away from me, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods, giving them worship:
20Then I will have this people uprooted out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will put away from before my eyes, and make it an example and a word of shame among all peoples.
21And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, and will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house?
22And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord, the God of their fathers, who took them out of the land of Egypt, and took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why he has sent all this evil on them.
II Chronicles 8
1Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the house of the Lord and a house for himself,
2He took in hand the building up of the towns which Huram had given him, causing the children of Israel to make living-places for themselves there.
3And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and overcame it.
4And he put up the buildings of Tadmor in the waste land, and of all the store-towns in Hamath;
5And of Beth-horon the higher and the lower, walled towns with walls and doorways and locks;
6And of Baalath, and all the store-towns which Solomon had, and the towns where he kept his war-carriages and his horse men, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule.
7As for all the rest of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel:
8Their men who were still living in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not put an end to, these Solomon put to forced work, as is done to this day;
9But Solomon did not make use of the children of Israel as servants for his work; they were men of war, his chiefs and his captains, and captains of his war-carriages and his horsemen.
10Now these were the chief men in authority whom King Solomon had: two hundred and fifty of them, in authority over the people.
11Then Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her; for he said, I will not have my wife living in the house of David, king of Israel, because those places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy.
12Then Solomon made burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had put up in front of the covered way,
13Offering every day what had been ordered by Moses, on the Sabbaths and at the new moon and at the regular feasts three times a year, that is at the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents.
14And he gave the divisions of the priests their places for their work, as ordered by his father David, and to the Levites he gave their work of praise and waiting on the priests, to do what was needed day by day; and he gave the door-keepers their places in turn at every door; for so David, the man of God, had given orders.
15All the orders given by the king to the priests and Levites, in connection with any business or stores, were done with care.
16And all the work of Solomon was complete, from the day when he put the base of the Lord's house in position, till Solomon had come to the end of building the Lord's house.
17Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth by the sea in the land of Edom.
18And Huram sent him, by his servants, ships and experienced seamen, who went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and came back with four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they took to King Solomon.
II Chronicles 9
1Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon, came to Jerusalem to put his wisdom to the test with hard questions; and with her came a very great train, and camels weighted down with spices, and great stores of gold and jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him of everything in her mind.
2And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions; there was no secret which he did not make clear to her.
3And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had made,
4And the food at his table, and all his servants seated there, and those who were waiting on him in their places, and their robes, and his wine-servants and their robes, and the burned offerings which he made in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.
5And she said to the king, The account which was given to me in my country of your acts and your wisdom was true.
6But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I came and saw for myself; and truly, word was not given me of half your great wisdom; you are much greater than they said.
7Happy are your wives and happy these your servants whose place is ever before you, hearing your words of wisdom.
8Praise be to the Lord your God whose pleasure it was to put you on the seat of his kingdom to be king for the Lord your God: because, in his love for Israel, it was the purpose of your God to make them strong for ever, he made you king over them, to be their judge in righteousness.
9And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never had such spices been seen as the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon.
10And the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon, in addition to gold from Ophir, came back with sandal-wood and jewels.
11And with the sandal-wood the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, and instruments of music for the makers of melody; never before had such been seen in the land of Judah.
12And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what she had taken to the king. So she went back to her country with her servants.
13Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents;
14And in addition to what he got from traders of different sorts, all the kings of Arabia and the rulers of the country gave gold and silver to Solomon.
15And King Solomon made two hundred body-covers of hammered gold, every one having six hundred shekels of gold in it.
16And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of hammered gold, using three hundred shekels of gold for every cover, and the king put them in the house of the Woods of Lebanon.
17Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the best gold.
18There were six steps up to it, and a foot-rest of gold fixed to it, and arms on the two sides of the seat, with two lions at the side of the arms.
19And twelve lions were placed on one side and on the other side on the six steps: there was nothing like it in any kingdom.
20All King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Woods of Lebanon were of the best gold: no one gave a thought to silver in the days of Solomon.
21For the king had Tarshish-ships sailing with the servants of Huram: once every three years the Tarshish-ships came back with gold and silver, ivory and monkeys and peacocks.
22And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom.
23And all the kings of the earth came to see Solomon and to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put into his heart.
24And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices, and horses and beasts for transport, regularly year by year.
25Solomon had four thousand buildings for his horses and his war-carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king in Jerusalem.
26And he was ruler over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the limit of Egypt.
27The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem and cedars like the sycamore-trees of the lowlands in number.
28They got horses for Solomon from Egypt and from every land.
29Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not recorded in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the words of Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh, and in the visions of Iddo the seer about Jeroboam, the son of Nebat?
30Solomon was king over Israel in Jerusalem for forty years.
31And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and Rehoboam his son became king in his place.
II Chronicles 10
1And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king.
2And when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had news of it, (for he was in Egypt where he had gone in flight from King Solomon,) he came back from Egypt.
3And they sent for him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said,
4Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the conditions under which your father kept us down less cruel, and the weight of the yoke he put on us less hard, then we will be your servants.
5And he said to them, Come to me again after three days. So the people went away.
6Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men who had been with Solomon his father when he was living, and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this people?
7And they said to him, If you are kind to this people, pleasing them and saying good words to them, then they will be your servants for ever.
8But he gave no attention to the opinion of the old men, but went to the young men of his generation who were waiting before him.
9And he said to them, What is your opinion? What answer are we to give to this people who have said to me, Make less the weight of the yoke which your father put on us?
10And the young men of his generation said to him, This is the answer to give to the people who came to you saying, Your father put a hard yoke on us, but will you make it less; say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's body;
11If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give you blows with snakes.
12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had given orders, saying, Come to me again on the third day.
13And the king gave them a rough answer. So King Rehoboam gave no attention to the suggestion of the old men,
14But gave them the answer put forward by the young men, saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make it harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give it with snakes.
15So the king did not give ear to the people; for this came about by the purpose of God, so that the Lord might give effect to his word which he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.
16And when all Israel saw that the king would give no attention to them, the people in answer said to the king, What part have we in David? what is our heritage in the son of Jesse? every man to your tents, O Israel; now see to your house, David. So all Israel went to their tents.
17But Rehoboam was still king over those of the children of Israel who were living in the towns of Judah.
18Then Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the overseer of the forced work; and he was stoned to death by all Israel. And King Rehoboam went quickly and got into his carriage to go in flight to Jerusalem.
19So Israel was turned away from the family of David to this day.
II Chronicles 11
1And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and got together the men of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam.
2But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying,
3Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,
4The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers: let every man go back to his house, for this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the words of the Lord and were turned back from fighting against Jeroboam.
5Now Rehoboam kept in Jerusalem, building walled towns in Judah.
6He was the builder of Beth-lehem and Etam and Tekoa
7And Beth-zur and Soco and Adullam
8And Gath and Mareshah and Ziph
9And Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah
10And Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, walled towns in Judah and Benjamin.
11And he made the walled towns strong, and he put captains in them and stores of food, oil, and wine.
12And in every town he put stores of body-covers and spears, and made them very strong. And Judah and Benjamin were his.
13And the priests and Levites who were in all Israel came together to him from every part of their country.
14For the Levites gave up their living-places and their property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had sent them away, not letting them be priests to the Lord;
15And he himself made priests for the high places, and for the images of he-goats and oxen which he had made.
16And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, all those whose hearts were fixed and true to the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to make offerings to the Lord, the God of their fathers.
17So they went on increasing the power of the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong for three years; and for three years they went in the ways of David and Solomon.
18And Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David and of Abihail, the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse;
19And she had sons by him, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.
20And after her he took Maacah, the daughter of Absalom; and she had Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith by him.
21Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, was dearer to Rehoboam than all his wives and his servant-wives: (for he had eighteen wives and sixty servant-wives, and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)
22Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Maacah, chief and ruler among his brothers, for it was his purpose to make him king.
23And in his wisdom he had his sons stationed in every walled town through all the lands of Judah and Benjamin; and he gave them a great store of food, and took wives for them.
II Chronicles 12
1Now when Rehoboam's position as king had been made certain, and he was strong, he gave up the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.
2Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, because of their sin against the Lord,
3With twelve hundred war-carriages and sixty thousand horsemen: and the people who came with him out of Egypt were more than might be numbered: Lubim and Sukkiim and Ethiopians.
4And he took the walled towns of Judah, and came as far as Jerusalem.
5Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the chiefs of Judah, who had come together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, The Lord has said, Because you have given me up, I have given you up into the hands of Shishak.
6Then the chiefs of Israel and the king made themselves low and said, The Lord is upright.
7And the Lord, seeing that they had made themselves low, said to Shemaiah, They have made themselves low: I will not send destruction on them, but in a short time I will give them salvation, and will not let loose my wrath on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.
8But still they will become his servants, so that they may see how different my yoke is from the yoke of the kingdoms of the lands.
9So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem and took away all the stored wealth of the house of the Lord and the king's house: he took everything away, and with the rest the gold body-covers which Solomon had made.
10And in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house.
11And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord, the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and then took them back to their room.
12And when he made himself low, the wrath of the Lord was turned back from him, and complete destruction did not come on him, for there was still some good in Judah.
13So King Rehoboam made himself strong in Jerusalem and was ruling there. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he was ruling for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the town which the Lord had made his out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there; and his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.
14And he did evil because his heart was not true to the Lord.
15Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not recorded in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
16And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David; and Abijah his son became king in his place.