Scholars cannot identify the authors of any portions of 1 Kings. Traditional guesses such as Samuel and Jeremiah lack evidence, although a prominent worshiper of the Lord like Jeremiah would have been influential in the circles that produced these books. Since the books of 1 and 2 Kings clearly incorporated many earlier documents, the complete authorship would include all writers who contributed to the source documents of this work. At some point, the Holy Spirit worked in the human authors to authenticate the inspired, inerrant books of 1 and 2 Kings. The final stage of composition or compilation had to come after the release of Jehoiachin from Babylonian imprisonment (ca 562 BC). That edition may have added only a postscript to a work completed years earlier, or it may have involved significant additions.
The history recorded in 1 and 2 Kings covers approximately 410 years. First Kings begins around 970 BC with the death of King David, and 2 Kings ends around 560 BC with the release of King Jehoiachin from prison. During this time, the nation of Israel split into two kingdoms (930 BC), and both kingdoms went into exile (Israel in 722 BC and Judah in 587 BC).
For the Bible writers, history could not have existed without God’s purposes. This makes all history theological. The books of 1 and 2 Kings interpreted Hebrew history in light of OT covenant theology. The Babylonian exile created the need for this work of historical apologetics. The exiles needed to explain the failure of the religious program established by the sovereign God. In the Deuteronomic history—Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings—this failure was consistently explained as the failures of the people to live up to their part of the covenant.
The organizing principle of 1 and 2 Kings is not story or narrative. Kings is unique because its basic structural units were the formulaic royal records. Formal openers (1Kg 15:9-10) and closers (1Kg 15:23-24) usually identify the boundaries of these records. Then the writer could insert other types of literature before, between, and after the openers and closers: narratives, prayers, descriptions, etc. But the most important element was the evaluation of the ruler’s faithfulness to the covenant (1Kg 15:11-15). All of these materials made up a history of covenant obedience or disobedience.
First Kings shows that God is in events that are produced by people’s sin and stupidity. This breaking up of the kingdom of Solomon into two parts was the result of Solomon’s sin and Rehoboam’s folly, yet God was in it. God had nothing to do with the sin or the folly, but in some way that we can never explain—in a mysterious way in which we are to believe without hesitation—God was in it all. The most notable instance of this truth of God is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ; that was the greatest of human crimes, yet it was foreordained and predetermined by the Most High—to whom there can be no such thing as crime nor any sort of compact with sin. We know not how it is, but it is an undoubted fact that a thing may be from God and yet it may be worked, as we see in this case, by human folly and wickedness.
1Now King David was old and advanced in age. Although they covered him with bedclothes, he could not get warm. 2 So his servants said to him: “Let us A search for a young virgin for my lord the king. She is to attend the king and be his caregiver. She is to lie by your side so that my lord the king will get warm.” 3 They searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel; they found Abishag the Shunammite B and brought her to the king. 4 The girl was of unsurpassed beauty, and she became the king’s caregiver. She attended to him, but he was not intimate with C her.
5 Adonijah son of Haggith kept exalting himself, saying, “I will be king! ” He prepared chariots, cavalry, and fifty men to run ahead of him. D 6 But his father had never once infuriated him by asking, “Why did you do that? ” In addition, he was quite handsome and was born after Absalom. 7 He conspired E with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar. They supported Adonijah, 8 but the priest Zadok, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the prophet Nathan, Shimei, Rei, and David’s royal guard F did not side with Adonijah.
9 Adonijah sacrificed sheep, goats, cattle, and fattened cattle near the stone of Zoheleth, which is next to En-rogel. He invited all his royal brothers and all the men of Judah, the servants of the king, 10 but he did not invite the prophet Nathan, Benaiah, the royal guard, or his brother Solomon.
11 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 it? 12 Now please come and let me advise you. Save your life and the life of your son Solomon. 13 Go, approach King David and say to him, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to your servant: Your son Solomon is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne? So why has Adonijah become king? ’ 14 At that moment, while you are still there speaking with the king, I’ll come in after you and confirm your words.”
15 So Bathsheba went to the king in his bedroom. Since the king was very old, Abishag the Shunammite was attending to him. 16 Bathsheba knelt low and paid homage to the king, and he asked, “What do you want? ”
17 She replied, “My lord, you swore to your servant by the LORD your God, ‘Your son Solomon is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne.’ 18 Now look, Adonijah has become king. And, G my lord the king, you didn’t know it. 19 He has lavishly sacrificed oxen, fattened cattle, and sheep. He invited all the king’s sons, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the commander of the army, but he did not invite your servant Solomon. 20 Now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. 21 Otherwise, when my lord the king rests with his fathers, I and my son Solomon will be regarded as criminals.”
22 At that moment, while she was still speaking with the king, the prophet Nathan arrived, 23 and it was announced to the king, “The prophet Nathan is here.” He came into the king’s presence and paid homage to him with his face to the ground.
24 “My lord the king,” Nathan said, “did you say, ‘Adonijah is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne’? 25 For today he went down and lavishly sacrificed oxen, fattened cattle, and sheep. He invited all the sons of the king, the commanders of the army, and the priest Abiathar. And look! They’re eating and drinking in his presence, and they’re saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah! ’ 26 But he did not invite me — me, your servant — or the priest Zadok or Benaiah son of Jehoiada or your servant Solomon. 27 I’m certain my lord the king would not have let this happen without letting your servant A know who will sit on my lord the king’s throne after him.”
28 King David responded by saying, “Call in Bathsheba for me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before him. 29 The king swore an oath and said, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from every difficulty, 30 just as I swore to you by the LORD God of Israel: Your son Solomon is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne in my place, that is exactly what I will do this very day.”
31 Bathsheba knelt low with her face to the ground, paying homage to the king, and said, “May my lord King David live forever! ”
32 King David then said, “Call in the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada for me.” So they came into the king’s presence. 33 The king said to them, “Take my servants with you, have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and take him down to Gihon. 34 There, the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan are to anoint him as king over Israel. You are to blow the ram’s horn and say, ‘Long live King Solomon! ’ 35 You are to come up after him, and he is to come in and sit on my throne. He is the one who is to become king in my place; he is the one I have commanded to be ruler over Israel and Judah.”
36 “Amen,” Benaiah son of Jehoiada replied to the king. “May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, so affirm it. 37 Just as the LORD was with my lord the king, so may he B be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”
38 Then the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down, had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and took him to Gihon. 39 The priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the ram’s horn, and all the people proclaimed, “Long live King Solomon! ” 40 All the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth split open from the sound. C
41 Adonijah and all the invited guests who were with him heard the noise as they finished eating. Joab heard the sound of the ram’s horn and said, “Why is the town in such an uproar? ” 42 He was still speaking when Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest, suddenly arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are an important man, and you must be bringing good news.”
43 “Unfortunately not,” Jonathan answered him. “Our lord King David has made Solomon king. 44 And with Solomon, the king has sent the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and they have had him ride on the king’s mule. 45 The priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan have anointed him king in Gihon. They have gone up from there rejoicing. The town has been in an uproar; that’s the noise you heard. 46 Solomon has even taken his seat on the royal throne.
47 “The king’s servants have also gone to congratulate our lord King David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon more well known than your name, and may he make his throne greater than your throne.’ Then the king bowed in worship on his bed. 48 And the king went on to say this: ‘Blessed be the LORD God of Israel! Today he has provided one to sit on my throne, and I am a witness.’ ” D
49 Then all of Adonijah’s guests got up trembling and went their separate ways. 50 Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, so he got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar.
51 It was reported to Solomon: “Look, Adonijah fears King Solomon, and he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon first A swear to me that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’ ”
52 Then Solomon said, “If he is a man of character, not a single hair of his will fall to the ground, but if evil is found in him, he dies.” 53 So King Solomon sent for him, and they took him down from the altar. He came and paid homage to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, “Go to your home.”
B 1:3 Shunem was a town in the hill country of Issachar at the foot of Mt. Moreh; Jos 19:17-18.
D 1:5 Heralds announcing his procession
G 1:18 Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg, Syr; other Hb mss read And now
A 1:27 Some Hb mss, LXX; alt Hb tradition reads servants
B 1:37 Alt Hb tradition reads so he will
C 1:40 LXX reads the land resounded with their noise
2As the time approached for David to die, he ordered his son Solomon, 2 “As for me, I am going the way of all of the earth. Be strong and be a man, 3 and keep your obligation to the LORD your God to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees. This is written in the law of Moses, so that you will have success in everything you do and wherever you turn, 4 and so that the LORD will fulfill his promise that he made to me: ‘If your sons guard their way to walk faithfully before me with all their heart and all their soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’
5 “You also know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me and what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s army, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He murdered them in a time of peace to avenge blood shed in war. He spilled that blood on his own waistband and on the sandals of his feet. B 6 Act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head descend to Sheol in peace.
7 “Show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite and let them be among those who eat at your table because they supported me when I fled from your brother Absalom.
8 “Keep an eye on Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim who is with you. He uttered malicious curses against me the day I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan River, and I swore to him by the LORD: ‘I will never kill you with the sword.’ 9 So don’t let him go unpunished, for you are a wise man. You know how to deal with him to bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”
10 Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. 11 The length of time David reigned over Israel was forty years: he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. 12 Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingship was firmly established.
13 Now Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, “Do you come peacefully? ”
“Peacefully,” he replied, 14 and then asked, “May I talk with you? ” C
“Go ahead,” she answered.
15 “You know the kingship was mine,” he said. “All Israel expected me to be king, but then the kingship was turned over to my brother, for the LORD gave it to him. 16 So now I have just one request of you; don’t turn me down.” D
She said to him, “Go on.”
17 He replied, “Please speak to King Solomon since he won’t turn you down. Let him give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife.”
18 “Very well,” Bathsheba replied. “I will speak to the king for you.”
19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and had a throne placed for the king’s mother. So she sat down at his right hand.
20 Then she said, “I have just one small request of you. Don’t turn me down.”
“Go ahead and ask, mother,” the king replied, “for I won’t turn you down.”
21 So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife.”
22 King Solomon answered his mother, “Why are you requesting Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my elder brother, you might as well ask the kingship for him, for the priest Abiathar, and for Joab son of Zeruiah.” A 23 Then King Solomon took an oath by the LORD: “May God punish me and do so severely if Adonijah has not made this request at the cost of his life. 24 And now, as the LORD lives — the one who established me, seated me on the throne of my father David, and made me a dynasty as he promised — I swear Adonijah will be put to death today! ” 25 Then King Solomon dispatched Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who struck down Adonijah, and he died.
26 The king said to the priest Abiathar, “Go to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death today, since you carried the ark of the Lord GOD in the presence of my father David and you suffered through all that my father suffered.” 27 So Solomon banished Abiathar from being the LORD’s priest, and it fulfilled the LORD’s prophecy he had spoken at Shiloh against Eli’s family.
28 The news reached Joab. Since he had supported Adonijah but not Absalom, Joab fled to the LORD’s tabernacle and took hold of the horns of the altar.
29 It was reported to King Solomon: “Joab has fled to the LORD’s tabernacle and is now beside the altar.” Then Solomon sent B Benaiah son of Jehoiada and told him, “Go and strike him down! ”
30 So Benaiah went to the tabernacle and said to Joab, “This is what the king says: ‘Come out! ’ ”
But Joab said, “No, for I will die here.”
So Benaiah took a message back to the king, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.”
31 The king said to him, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him in order to remove from me and from my father’s family the blood that Joab shed without just cause. 32 The LORD will bring back his own blood on his head because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, without my father David’s knowledge. With his sword, Joab murdered Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army. 33 The responsibility for their deaths will come back to Joab and to his descendants A forever, but for David, his descendants, his dynasty, and his throne, there will be peace from the LORD forever.”
34 Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, struck down Joab, and put him to death. He was buried at his house in the wilderness. 35 Then the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada in Joab’s place over the army, and he appointed the priest Zadok in Abiathar’s place.
36 Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and live there, but don’t leave there and go anywhere else. 37 On the day you do leave and cross the Kidron Valley, know for sure that you will certainly die. Your blood will be on your own head.”
38 Shimei said to the king, “The sentence is fair; your servant will do as my lord the king has spoken.” And Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.
39 But then, at the end of three years, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. Shimei was informed, “Look, your slaves are in Gath.” 40 So Shimei saddled his donkey and set out to Achish at Gath to search for his slaves. He went and brought them back from Gath.
41 It was reported to Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned. 42 So the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Didn’t I make you swear by the LORD and warn you, saying, ‘On the day you leave and go anywhere else, know for sure that you will certainly die’? And you said to me, ‘The sentence is fair; I will obey.’ 43 So why have you not kept the LORD’s oath and the command that I gave you? ” 44 The king also said, “You yourself know all the evil that you did to my father David. Therefore, the LORD has brought back your evil on your head, 45 but King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will remain established before the LORD forever.”
46 Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down, and he died. So the kingdom was established in Solomon’s hand.
2:30 “Joab said, ‘No, for I will die here.’” Solomon was to be the king after David, but his elder brother, Adonijah, was preferred by Joab, the captain of the army, and by Abiathar the priest. When Solomon came to the throne, Adonijah was afraid for his life and fled to the horns of the altar for shelter. Solomon provisionally forgave him until he began plotting again, and it became necessary for Solomon to strike a heavy blow. He determined to begin with Joab, the bottom of all the mischief. No sooner had the king determined this than Joab fled to the altar, which he had seldom approached before. He was an elderly man who had, thirty or more years before, committed two atrocious murders, and now they came home to him. As far as we can judge, he had shown little respect to religion during his lifetime. He was a rough man of war and cared little enough about God, the tabernacle, the priests, or the altar; but when he was in danger, he sought refuge in that which he had neglected. He is not the only man who has done this. But the altar was of no use to him. We may derive two lessons from this. The first is that outward ordinances are useless. Before the living God, who is greater and wiser than Solomon, it will be of no use to anyone to lay hold on the horns of the altar. But second, there is an altar—a spiritual altar—where if someone lays hold of the horns and says, “No, for I will die here,” he will never die, but he will be safe against the sword of justice forever, for the Lord has appointed an altar in the person of his own dear Son, Jesus Christ, where there will be shelter for the vilest of sinners if they do but come and lay hold of it.
B 2:5 LXX, Old Lat read on my waistband and . . . my feet ; v. 31
C 2:14 Lit then said, “I have a word for you.”
D 2:16 Lit don’t make me turn my face
A 2:22 LXX, Vg, Syr read kingship for him, and on his side are Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah
B 2:29 LXX adds Joab a message: “What is the matter with you, that you have fled to the altar? ” And Joab replied, “Because I feared you, I have fled to the Lord.” And Solomon the king sent
A 2:33 Lit Their blood will return on the head of Joab and on the head of his seed
3Solomon made an alliance B with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying Pharaoh’s daughter. Solomon brought her to the city of David until he finished building his palace, the LORD’s temple, and the wall surrounding Jerusalem. 2 However, the people were sacrificing on the high places, because until that time a temple for the LORD’s name had not been built. 3 Solomon loved the LORD by walking in the statutes of his father David, but he also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there because it was the most famous high place. He offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask. What should I give you? ”
6 And Solomon replied, “You have shown great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, righteousness, and integrity. C You have continued this great and faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today.
7 “LORD my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. D 8 Your servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours? ”
10 Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. 11 So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life E or riches for yourself, or the death A of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice, 12 I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again. 13 In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor, so that no king will be your equal during your entire life. 14 If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”
15 Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.
16 Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was in the house. 18 On the third day after I gave birth, she also had a baby and we were alone. No one else B was with us in the house; just the two of us were there. 19 During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. 20 She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was asleep. She laid him in her arms, and she put her dead son in my arms. 21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. That morning, when I looked closely at him I realized that he was not the son I gave birth to.”
22 “No,” the other woman said. “My son is the living one; your son is the dead one.”
The first woman said, “No, your son is the dead one; my son is the living one.” So they argued before the king.
23 The king replied, “This woman says, ‘This is my son who is alive, and your son is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead, and my son is alive.’ ” 24 The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought the sword to the king. 25 And the king said, “Cut the living boy in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
26 The woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she felt great compassion C for her son. “My lord, give her the living baby,” she said, “but please don’t have him killed! ”
But the other one said, “He will not be mine or yours. Cut him in two! ”
27 The king responded, “Give the living baby to the first woman, and don’t kill him. She is his mother.” 28 All Israel heard about the judgment the king had given, and they stood in awe of the king because they saw that God’s wisdom was in him to carry out justice.
B 3:1 Lit Solomon made himself a son-in-law
C 3:6 Lit and uprightness of heart with you
D 3:7 Lit am a little youth and do not know to go out or come in
4King Solomon reigned over all Israel, 2 and these were his officials:
Azariah son of Zadok, priest;
3 Elihoreph and Ahijah the sons of Shisha, secretaries;
Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud, court historian;
4 Benaiah son of Jehoiada, in charge of the army;
Zadok and Abiathar, priests;
5 Azariah son of Nathan, in charge of the deputies;
Zabud son of Nathan, a priest and adviser to the king;
6 Ahishar, in charge of the palace;
and Adoniram son of Abda, in charge of forced labor.
7 Solomon had twelve deputies for all Israel. They provided food for the king and his household; each one made provision for one month out of the year. 8 These were their names:
Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;
9 Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;
10 Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (he had Socoh and the whole land of Hepher);
11 Ben-abinadab, in all Naphath-dor (Taphath daughter of Solomon was his wife);
12 Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the other side of Jokmeam;
13 Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (he had the villages of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);
14 Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;
15 Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also had married a daughter of Solomon — Basemath);
16 Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;
17 Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar;
18 Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin;
19 Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of King Sihon of the Amorites and of King Og of Bashan.
There was one deputy in the land of Judah. A
20 Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they were eating, drinking, and rejoicing. 21 Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt. They offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.
22 Solomon’s provisions for one day were 150 bushels B of fine flour and 300 bushels C of meal, 23 ten fattened cattle, twenty range cattle, and a hundred sheep and goats, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and pen-fed poultry, D 24 for he had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza and over all the kings west of the Euphrates. He had peace on all his surrounding borders. 25 Throughout Solomon’s reign, Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beer-sheba, each person under his own vine and his own fig tree. 26 Solomon had forty thousand E stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. 27 Each of those deputies for a month in turn provided food for King Solomon and for everyone who came to King Solomon’s table. They neglected nothing. 28 Each man brought the barley and the straw for the chariot teams and the other horses to the required place according to his assignment. F
29 God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone — wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, sons of Mahol. His reputation extended to all the surrounding nations.
32 Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs numbered 1,005. 33 He spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall. He also spoke about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. 34 Emissaries of all peoples, sent by every king on earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom.
5King Hiram of Tyre sent his emissaries to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in his father’s place, for Hiram had always been friends with David.
2 Solomon sent this message to Hiram: 3 “You know my father David was not able to build a temple for the name of the LORD his God. This was because of the warfare all around him until the LORD put his enemies under his feet. 4 The LORD my God has now given me rest on every side; there is no enemy or crisis. 5 So I plan to build a temple for the name of the LORD my God, according to what the LORD promised my father David: ‘I will put your son on your throne in your place, and he will build the temple for my name.’
6 “Therefore, command that cedars from Lebanon be cut down for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will pay your servants’ wages according to whatever you say, for you know that not a man among us knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the LORD today! He has given David a wise son to be over this great people! ” 8 Then Hiram sent a reply to Solomon, saying, “I have heard your message; I will do everything you want regarding the cedar and cypress timber. 9 My servants will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place you indicate. I will break them apart there, and you can take them away. You then can meet my needs by providing my household with food.”
10 So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar and cypress timber he wanted, 11 and Solomon provided Hiram with one hundred thousand bushels A of wheat as food for his household and one hundred ten thousand gallons B of oil from crushed olives. Solomon did this for Hiram year after year.
12 The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.
13 Then King Solomon drafted forced laborers from all Israel; the labor force numbered thirty thousand men. 14 He sent ten thousand to Lebanon each month in shifts; one month they were in Lebanon, two months they were at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. 15 Solomon had seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountains, 16 not including his thirty-three hundred C deputies in charge of the work. They supervised the people doing the work. 17 The king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones. 18 So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the temple’s construction.
QUOTE 5:17
All our work for God should be done thoroughly, and especially that part of it that lies lowest and is least observed by people.
5:14 “One month they were in Lebanon, two months they were at home.” Solomon did not demand that any Israelite should toil in the mountains and quarries for years and leave his own fields to lie waste, but he decreed that the workers should have one month in Lebanon at work on the temple and two months at home for their own affairs. I will draw from this two lessons: first, that we ought to be rendering service to the Lord our God and assisting to build up his spiritual temple. But second, that while we labor abroad, we must be doubly careful to watch over our own households and our own souls. Marthas must also be Marys. We are bound to serve, but we must not be burdened with much serving. We must work with Martha and yet sit with Mary at the Master’s feet. There must be one month in Lebanon and two months at home.
5:17 “The king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.” Much of foundation work is out of sight, and the temptation is to pay only small attention to its finish. It was not so with Solomon. Although it was out of sight, the king took care that the underground portion of the temple should be worthy of the rest of the edifice. Builders in these days would think it absurd to spend time and labor in the hewing of stones that would never be seen. Foundations may call for something firm and solid but certainly for nothing costly and hewn with care. Out of sight, out of mind. And therefore no one will spend time and trouble with it. Not so with the wise king engaged in the service of God. He paid great attention to underground work. “Large, costly stones” were brought at his command to form the foundation of the temple. He designed to make it all of a piece; it was to be as magnificent in its foundation as in its roof. There was to be no poverty of material, no skimping of any portion of the work. It was for God, and it was to be built by the king of Israel. And it would neither honor God nor the king to have a bad foundation. All our work for God should be done thoroughly, and especially that part of it that lies lowest and is least observed by people. I will first say this is God’s method—he builds all his works with good foundations. Second, this should be our method in all work for God. And, third, this is a wise method.
6Solomon began to build the temple for the LORD in the four hundred eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month. A 2 The temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was ninety feet B long, thirty feet C wide, and forty-five feet D high. 3 The portico in front of the temple sanctuary was thirty feet long extending across the temple’s width, and fifteen feet deep E in front of the temple. 4 He also made windows with beveled frames F for the temple.
5 He then built a chambered structure G along the temple wall, encircling the walls of the temple, that is, the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. And he made side chambers H all around. 6 The lowest chamber was 7 1/2 feet I wide, the middle was 9 feet J wide, and the third was 10 1/2 feet K wide. He also provided offset ledges for the temple all around the outside so that nothing would be inserted into the temple walls. 7 The temple’s construction used finished stones cut at the quarry so that no hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.
8 The door for the lowest L side chamber was on the right side of the temple. They M went up a stairway F to the middle chamber, and from the middle to the third. 9 When he finished building the temple, he paneled it with boards and planks of cedar. 10 He built the chambers along the entire temple, joined to the temple with cedar beams; each story was 7 1/2 feet high.
11 The word of the LORD came to Solomon: 12 “As for this temple you are building — if you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep all my commands by walking in them, I will fulfill my promise to you, which I made to your father David. 13 I will dwell among the Israelites and not abandon my people Israel.”
14 When Solomon finished building the temple, N 15 he paneled the interior temple walls with cedar boards; from the temple floor to the surface of the ceiling he overlaid the interior with wood. He also overlaid the floor with cypress boards. 16 Then he lined thirty feet of the rear of the temple with cedar boards from the floor to the surface of the ceiling, O and he built the interior as an inner sanctuary, the most holy place. 17 The temple, that is, the sanctuary in front of the most holy place, P was sixty feet Q long. 18 The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with ornamental gourds and flower blossoms. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.
19 He prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple to put the ark of the LORD’s covenant there. 20 The interior of the sanctuary was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high; he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the cedar altar. 21 Next, Solomon overlaid the interior of the temple with pure gold, and he hung R gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary and overlaid it with gold. 22 So he added the gold overlay to the entire temple until everything was completely finished, including the entire altar that belongs to the inner sanctuary.
23 In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim 15 feet S high out of olive wood. 24 One wing of the first cherub was 7 1/2 feet long, and the other wing was 7 1/2 feet long. The wingspan was 15 feet from tip to tip. 25 The second cherub also was 15 feet; both cherubim had the same size and shape. 26 The first cherub’s height was 15 feet and so was the second cherub’s. 27 Then he put the cherubim inside the inner temple. Since their wings were spread out, the first one’s wing touched one wall while the second cherub’s wing touched the other A wall, and in the middle of the temple their wings were touching wing to wing. 28 He also overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29 He carved all the surrounding temple walls with carved engravings — cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms — in the inner and outer sanctuaries. 30 He overlaid the temple floor with gold in both the inner and the outer sanctuaries.
31 For the entrance of the inner sanctuary, he made olive wood doors. The pillars of the doorposts were five-sided. B 32 The two doors were made of olive wood. He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold, hammering gold over the cherubim and palm trees. 33 In the same way, he made four-sided B olive wood doorposts for the sanctuary entrance. 34 The two doors were made of cypress wood; the first door had two folding sides, and the second door had two folding panels. 35 He carved cherubim, palm trees, and flower blossoms on them and overlaid them with gold applied evenly over the carving. 36 He built the inner courtyard with three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams.
37 The foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid in Solomon’s fourth year in the month of Ziv. 38 In his eleventh year in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, C the temple was completed in every detail and according to every specification. So he built it in seven years.
C 6:2 Lit 20 cubits, also in vv. 3,16,20
G 6:5 Lit built the temple of chamber
I 6:6 Lit five cubits, also in vv. 10,24
L 6:8 LXX, Tg; MT reads middle
O 6:16 LXX; MT omits of the ceiling ; 1Kg 6:15
P 6:17 Lit front of me ; Hb obscure
R 6:21 Lit he caused to pass across
S 6:23 Lit 10 cubits, also in vv. 24,25,26
7Solomon completed his entire palace complex after thirteen years of construction. 2 He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was one hundred fifty feet D long, seventy-five feet E wide, and forty-five feet F high on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on top of the pillars. 3 It was paneled above with cedar at the top of the chambers that rested on forty-five pillars, fifteen per row. 4 There were three rows of window frames, facing each other G in three tiers. H 5 All the doors and doorposts had rectangular frames, the openings facing each other I in three tiers. 6 He made the hall of pillars seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. A portico was in front of the pillars, and a canopy with pillars B was in front of them. 7 He made the Hall of the Throne where he would judge — the Hall of Judgment. It was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters. J 8 Solomon’s own palace where he would live, in the other courtyard behind the hall, was of similar construction. And he made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, his wife. K
9 All of these buildings were of costly stones, cut to size and sawed with saws on the inner and outer surfaces, from foundation to coping and from the outside to the great courtyard. 10 The foundation was made of large, costly stones twelve and fifteen feet L long. 11 Above were also costly stones, cut to size, as well as cedar wood. 12 Around the great courtyard, as well as the inner courtyard of the LORD’s temple and the portico of the temple, were three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams.
13 King Solomon had Hiram M brought from Tyre. 14 He was a widow’s son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze craftsman. Hiram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge to do every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.
15 He cast two bronze pillars, each 27 feet A high and 18 feet B in circumference. C 16 He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars; 7 1/2 feet D was the height of the first capital, and 7 1/2 feet was also the height of the second capital. 17 The capitals on top of the pillars had gratings of latticework, wreaths E made of chainwork — seven for the first capital and seven for the second.
18 He made the pillars with two encircling rows of pomegranates on the one grating to cover the capital on top; he did the same for the second capital. 19 And the capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, six feet F high. 20 The capitals on the two pillars were also immediately above the rounded surface next to the grating, and two hundred pomegranates were in rows encircling each G capital. 21 He set up the pillars at the portico of the sanctuary: he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin; H then he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. I 22 The tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. Then the work of the pillars was completed.
23 He made the cast metal basin, J 15 feet K from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was 7 1/2 feet high and 45 feet in circumference. 24 Ornamental gourds encircled it below the brim, ten every half yard, L completely encircling the basin. The gourds were cast in two rows when the basin was cast. 25 It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The basin was on top of them and all their hindquarters were toward the center. 26 The basin was three inches M thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or of a lily blossom. It held eleven thousand gallons. N
27 Then he made ten bronze water carts. O Each water cart was 6 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4 1/2 feet P high. 28 This was the design of the carts: They had frames; the frames were between the cross-pieces, 29 and on the frames between the cross-pieces were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the cross-pieces there was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging Q work. 30 Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. Underneath the four corners of the basin were cast supports, each next to a wreath. 31 And the water cart’s opening inside the crown on top was eighteen inches R wide. The opening was round, made as a pedestal twenty-seven inches S wide. On it were carvings, but their frames were square, not round. 32 There were four wheels under the frames, and the wheel axles were part of the water cart; each wheel was twenty-seven inches T tall. 33 The wheels’ design was similar to that of chariot wheels: their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of cast metal. 34 Four supports were at the four corners of each water cart; each support was one piece with the water cart. 35 At the top of the cart was a band nine inches U high encircling it; also, at the top of the cart, its braces and its frames were one piece with it. 36 He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the plates of its braces and on its frames, wherever each had space, with encircling wreaths. 37 In this way he made the ten water carts using the same casting, dimensions, and shape for all of them.
38 Then he made ten bronze basins — each basin held 220 gallons V and each was six feet wide — one basin for each of the ten water carts. 39 He set five water carts on the right side of the temple and five on the left side. He put the basin near the right side of the temple toward the southeast. 40 Then Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the sprinkling basins.
So Hiram finished all the work that he was doing for King Solomon on the LORD’s temple: 41 two pillars; bowls for the capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars; 42 the four hundred pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating covering both capitals’ bowls on top of the pillars); 43 the ten water carts; the ten basins on the water carts; 44 the basin; the twelve oxen underneath the basin; 45 and the pots, shovels, and sprinkling basins. All the utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon at the LORD’s temple were made of burnished bronze. 46 The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan. 47 Solomon left all the utensils unweighed because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined.
48 Solomon also made all the equipment in the LORD’s temple: the gold altar; the gold table that the Bread of the Presence was placed on; 49 the pure gold lampstands in front of the inner sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left; the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs; 50 the pure gold ceremonial bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, ladles, A and firepans; and the gold hinges for the doors of the inner temple (that is, the most holy place) and for the doors of the temple sanctuary.
51 So all the work King Solomon did in the LORD’s temple was completed. Then Solomon brought in the consecrated things of his father David — the silver, the gold, and the utensils — and put them in the treasuries of the LORD’s temple.
E 7:2 Lit 50 cubits, also in v. 6
F 7:2 Lit 30 cubits, also in vv. 6,23
G 7:4 Lit frames, window to window
H 7:4 Lit three times ; = at 3 different places, also in v. 5
I 7:5 Lit frames, opposing window to window
K 7:8 Lit daughter he had taken
L 7:10 Lit ten cubits and eight cubits
C 7:15 LXX adds and the thickness of the pillar was four fingers hollowed and similarly the second pillar
D 7:16 Lit five cubits, also in v. 23
F 7:19 Lit four cubits, also in vv. 27,38
G 7:20 Lit encircling the second
S 7:31 Lit one and a half cubits
8At that time Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the tribal heads and the ancestral leaders of the Israelites before him at Jerusalem in order to bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from the city of David, that is Zion. 2 So all the men of Israel were assembled in the presence of King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month, B at the festival.
3 All the elders of Israel came, and the priests picked up the ark. 4 The priests and the Levites brought the ark of the LORD, the tent of meeting, and the holy utensils that were in the tent. 5 King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel, who had gathered around him and were with him in front of the ark, were sacrificing sheep, goats, and cattle that could not be counted or numbered, because there were so many. 6 The priests brought the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place beneath the wings of the cherubim. 7 For the cherubim were spreading their wings over C the place of the ark, so that the cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above. 8 The poles were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen from outside the sanctuary; they are still there today. 9 Nothing was in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Horeb, D where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.
10 When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the LORD’s temple, 11 and because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
The LORD said that he would dwell in total darkness.
13I have indeed built an exalted temple for you,
a place for your dwelling forever.
14 The king turned around and blessed the entire congregation of Israel while they were standing. 15 He said:
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel!
He spoke directly
to my father David,
and he has fulfilled the promise by his power.
He said,
16“Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt,
I have not chosen a city to build a temple in
among any of the tribes of Israel,
so that my name would be there.
But I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.”
17My father David had his heart set
on building a temple for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
18But the LORD said to my father David,
“Since your heart was set on building a temple for my name,
you have done well to have this desire. A
19Yet you are not the one to build it;
instead, your son, your own offspring,
will build it for my name.”
20The LORD has fulfilled what he promised.
I have taken the place of my father David,
and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised.
I have built the temple for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
21I have provided a place there for the ark,
where the LORD’s covenant is
that he made with our ancestors
when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the entire congregation of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. 23 He said:
LORD God of Israel,
there is no God like you
in heaven above or on earth below,
who keeps the gracious covenant
with your servants who walk before you
with all their heart.
24You have kept what you promised
to your servant, my father David.
You spoke directly to him
and you fulfilled your promise by your power
as it is today.
25Therefore, LORD God of Israel,
keep what you promised
to your servant, my father David:
You will never fail to have a man
to sit before me on the throne of Israel,
if only your sons take care to walk before me
as you have walked before me.
26Now LORD B God of Israel,
please confirm what you promised
to your servant, my father David.
27But will God indeed live on earth?
Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you,
much less this temple I have built.
28Listen C to your servant’s prayer and his petition,
LORD my God,
so that you may hear the cry and the prayer
that your servant prays before you today,
29so that your eyes may watch over this temple night and day,
toward the place where you said,
and so that you may hear the prayer
that your servant prays toward this place.
30Hear the petition of your servant
and your people Israel,
which they pray toward this place.
May you hear in your dwelling place in heaven.
May you hear and forgive.
31When a man sins against
his neighbor
and is forced to take an oath, A
and he comes to take an oath
before your altar in this temple,
32may you hear in heaven and act.
May you judge your servants,
condemning the wicked man by bringing
what he has done on his own head
and providing justice for the righteous
by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
33When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy,
because they have sinned against you,
and they return to you and praise your name,
and they pray and plead with you
for mercy in this temple,
34may you hear in heaven
and forgive the sin of your people Israel.
May you restore them to the land
you gave their ancestors.
35When the skies are shut and there is no rain,
because they have sinned against you,
and they pray toward this place
and praise your name,
and they turn from their sins
because you are afflicting them,
36may you hear in heaven
and forgive the sin of your servants
and your people Israel,
so that you may teach them the good way
they should walk in.
May you send rain on your land
that you gave your people for an inheritance.
37When there is famine in the land,
when there is pestilence,
when there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper,
when their enemy besieges them
in the land and its cities, B
when there is any plague or illness,
38every prayer or petition
that any person or that all your people Israel may have —
they each know their own affliction C —
as they spread out their hands toward this temple,
39may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place,
and may you forgive, act, and give to everyone
according to all their ways, since you know each heart,
for you alone know every human heart,
all the days they live on the land
you gave our ancestors.
41Even for the foreigner who is not of your people Israel
but has come from a distant land
because of your name —
42for they will hear of your great name,
strong hand, and outstretched arm,
and will come and pray toward this temple —
43may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place,
and do according to all the foreigner asks.
Then all peoples of earth will know your name,
to fear you as your people Israel do
and to know that this temple I have built
bears your name.
44When your people go out to fight against their enemies, A
wherever you send them,
and they pray to the LORD
in the direction of the city you have chosen
and the temple I have built for your name,
45may you hear their prayer and petition in heaven
and uphold their cause.
46When they sin against you —
for there is no one who does not sin —
and you are angry with them
and hand them over to the enemy,
and their captors deport them to the enemy’s country —
whether distant or nearby —
47and when they come to their senses B
in the land where they were deported
and repent and petition you in their captors’ land:
“We have sinned and done wrong;
we have been wicked,”
48and when they return to you with all their heart and all their soul
in the land of their enemies who took them captive,
and when they pray to you in the direction of their land
that you gave their ancestors,
the city you have chosen,
and the temple I have built for your name,
49may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place,
their prayer and petition and uphold their cause.
50May you forgive your people
who sinned against you
and all their rebellions C against you,
and may you grant them compassion
before their captors,
so that they may treat them compassionately.
51For they are your people and your inheritance;
you brought them out of Egypt,
out of the middle of an iron furnace.
52May your eyes be open to your servant’s petition
and to the petition of your people Israel,
listening to them whenever they call to you.
53For you, Lord GOD, have set them apart as your inheritance
from all peoples of the earth,
as you spoke through
your servant Moses
when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.
QUOTE 8:53
We are his servants whose sole and only business is to wait on him.
54 When Solomon finished praying this entire prayer and petition to the LORD, he got up from kneeling before the altar of the LORD, with his hands spread out toward heaven, 55 and he stood and blessed the whole congregation of Israel with a loud voice: 56 “Blessed be the LORD! He has given rest to his people Israel according to all he has said. Not one of all the good promises he made through his servant Moses has failed. 57 May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us 58 so that he causes us to be devoted A to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors. 59 May my words with which I have made my petition before the LORD be near the LORD our God day and night. May he uphold his servant’s cause and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires. 60 May all the peoples of the earth know that the LORD is God. There is no other! 61 Be wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD our God to walk in his statutes and to keep his commands, as it is today.”
62 The king and all Israel with him were offering sacrifices in the LORD’s presence. 63 Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep and goats. In this manner the king and all the Israelites dedicated the LORD’s temple.
64 On the same day, the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the LORD’s temple because that was where he offered the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the fellowship offerings since the bronze altar before the LORD was too small to accommodate the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings.
65 Solomon and all Israel with him — a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath B to the Brook of Egypt — observed the festival at that time in the presence of the LORD our God, seven days, and seven more days — fourteen days. C 66 On the fifteenth day D he sent the people away. So they blessed the king and went to their homes E rejoicing and with happy hearts for all the goodness that the LORD had done for his servant David and for his people Israel.
8:38 “They each know their own affliction—as they spread out their hands toward this temple.” The people especially looked toward the temple in prayer in times of national calamity. In drought, or when the crops were consumed by locusts or by caterpillars, or when blast and mildew destroyed the hope of harvest, or in time of war or pestilence, their supplications were presented unto the one Jehovah—all eyes looking toward his one sacred shrine where the one sacrifice smoked on the altar. But although there were those special opportunities when God heard their prayers as a nation, it is pleasant to observe that he regarded the griefs of individuals. Every person that knew his own affliction (or “the plague of his heart”) was to spread his hands toward that one place of sacrifice and pray. And God would forgive him and deliver him. May the Lord God, the Holy Spirit, help us avail ourselves of the blessed peace stored up in the one great sacrifice that every restless heart may have if it will only come to him.
8:53 “For you, Lord GOD, have set them apart as your inheritance from all peoples of the earth.” Israel was a type of the church of God. The apostle, in the epistle to the Romans, clearly shows that Abraham was the father, not of the circumcision only, but of all those who walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham, and that the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For the covenanted inheritance was not to be given according to descent through the flesh, or the inheritance would have fallen to Ishmael. But the peculiar blessings God promised to Abraham are the heritage of those who are born after the Spirit, according to the promise, even as Isaac was. We may, therefore, without any violence, apply what is said of ancient Israel to the present people of God. The promises that were made to the great patriarch had an eye to us. So as Israel’s safety and glory lay in being distinct from all other people, that truth holds good concerning the church of God at this day, for we, also, are not of this world. And what has the Lord aimed at by separating his people from the world? The text tells us, “as your inheritance.” When someone accepts his inheritance, he expects to use it for his own purposes. So if we are the Lord’s inheritance, all that we are capable of producing belongs to him, and he looks to have it. To him every power, every faculty, every passion, every ability, yes, even life itself, belongs to him. All the clusters of our vine are his. We are his servants whose sole and only business is to wait on him. We dare not look on ourselves as our own, or as belonging to others, for we are bought with a price. And therefore it is reasonable that we should serve the Lord in our bodies and our spirits, which are his. Also, when someone takes an inheritance, he means never to give it up. A Jew was never to give up his inheritance. And we are the inheritance of God, the Lord’s own portion. Sooner than give us up, the one and only Son shed his heart’s blood. We are his and he will not lose us.
A 8:18 Lit well because it was with your heart
B 8:26 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Tg, Vg, 2Ch 6:16; other Hb mss omit LORD
A 8:31 Lit and he lifts a curse against him to curse him
C 8:38 Lit know in his heart of a plague
A 8:44 Some Hb mss, some ancient versions, 2Ch 6:34; other Hb mss read enemy
B 8:47 Lit they return to their heart
C 8:50 Lit rebellions that they have rebelled
A 8:58 Lit causes our hearts to be inclined
C 8:65 Temple dedication lasted seven days, and the Festival of Shelters lasted seven days.
9When Solomon finished building the temple of the LORD, the royal palace, and all that Solomon desired to do, 2 the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The LORD said to him:
I have heard your prayer and petition you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple you have built, to put A my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.
4 As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.
6 If you or your sons turn away from following me and do not keep my commands — my statutes that I have set before you — and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them, 7 I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject B the temple I have sanctified for my name. Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples. 8 Though this temple is now exalted, C everyone who passes by will be appalled and will scoff. D They will say: Why did the LORD do this to this land and this temple? 9 Then they will say: Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt. They held on to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, the LORD brought all this ruin on them.
10 At the end of twenty years during which Solomon had built the two houses, the LORD’s temple and the royal palace — 11 King Hiram of Tyre having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every wish — King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee. 12 So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them. 13 So he said, “What are these towns you’ve given me, my brother? ” So he called them the Land of Cabul, E as they are still called today. 14 Now Hiram had sent the king nine thousand pounds F of gold.
15 This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon had imposed to build the LORD’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16 Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He then burned it, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17 Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, 18 Baalath, Tamar A,B in the Wilderness of Judah, 19 all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities, the cavalry cities, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.
20 As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites — 21 their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely — Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is still this way today. 22 But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to slavery; they were soldiers, his servants, his commanders, his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. 23 These were the deputies who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who supervised the people doing the work.
24 Pharaoh’s daughter moved from the city of David to the house that Solomon had built for her; he then built the terraces.
25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, and he burned incense with them in the LORD’s presence. So he completed the temple.
26 King Solomon put together a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. 27 With the fleet, Hiram sent his servants, experienced seamen, along with Solomon’s servants. 28 They went to Ophir and acquired gold there — sixteen tons C — and delivered it to Solomon.
9:3 “I have heard your prayer and petition you have made before me.” What the Lord spoke about in the commencement of his interview with Solomon was his prayer. As the Lord answered Solomon’s prayer and here recapitulated the points of it, we may be sure that the Lord would make it a model for us. Most importantly, an accepted prayer must be before the Lord. The Pharisee went up to the temple to pray, but evidently he did not pray “before me.” Even in the most holy courts, he did not find the place desired. In his own esteem he prayed, but in his going home to his house without justification there was evidence he either had not prayed at all or had not prayed before God. It is not because we enter a church and sit in the pews that we are before God. Even if we stood by the site of Jerusalem or Calvary and prayed there—or if we went to Olivet or even Gethsemane—we might not be before God. Praying before God is a spiritual business rather than a turning to the east or to the west, or bowing the knee, or entering within hallowed walls. It is a thing not to be done except by the power of the Spirit. The first thing the soul desires in prayer is an audience with God. If the Lord does not hear us, we have gained nothing. And what an honor it is to have audience with God. The frail, feeble, undeserving creature is permitted to stand in the august presence of the God of the whole earth, and the Lord regards that poor creature as if there were nothing else for him to observe and bends his ear and his heart to listen to that creature’s cry.
B 9:7 Lit send from my presence
C 9:8 Some ancient versions read temple will become a ruin
A 9:18 Alt Hb traditions, LXX, Syr, Tg, Vg read Tadmor ; 2Ch 8:4
B 9:18 Tamar was a city in southern Judah; Ezk 47:19; 48:28.
10The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s fame connected with the name of the LORD and came to test him with riddles. 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels bearing spices, gold in great abundance, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke to him about everything that was on her mind. 3 So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba observed all of Solomon’s wisdom, the palace he had built, 5 the food at his table, his servants’ residence, his attendants’ service and their attire, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he offered at the LORD’s temple, it took her breath away.
QUOTE 10:1
When the night is darkest, we may ask him for his light. When the way is roughest, we may lean more than ever on his arm. When the storm is the most fierce, we may trust the Pilot of the Galilean lake. When all around us rocks and reels to and fro like a drunken person, we may find a sure shelter and hiding place in the Rock of ages. We may prove the Lord Jesus in every possible way, for he loves to be tested.
6 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true. 7 But I didn’t believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, I was not even told half. Your wisdom and prosperity far exceed the report I heard. 8 How happy are your men. D How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom. 9 Blessed be the LORD your God! He delighted in you and put you on the throne of Israel, because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel. He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness.”
10 Then she gave the king four and a half tons A of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did such a quantity of spices arrive as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
11 In addition, Hiram’s fleet that carried gold from Ophir brought from Ophir a large quantity of almug B wood and precious stones. 12 The king made the almug wood into steps for the LORD’s temple and the king’s palace and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before did such almug wood arrive, and the like has not been seen again.
13 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire — whatever she asked — besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.
14 The weight of gold that came to Solomon annually was twenty-five tons, C 15 besides what came from merchants, traders’ merchandise, and all the Arabian kings and governors of the land.
16 King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; fifteen pounds D of gold went into each shield. 17 He made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; nearly four pounds E of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
18 The king also made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with fine gold. 19 The throne had six steps; there was a rounded top at the back of the throne, armrests on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests. 20 Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps, one at each end. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.
21 All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, since it was considered as nothing in Solomon’s time, 22 for the king had ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. F
23 King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the world in riches and in wisdom. 24 The whole world wanted an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart. 25 Every man would bring his annual tribute: items G of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, H spices, and horses and mules.
26 Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen and stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills. 28 Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue. A The king’s traders bought them from Kue at the going price. 29 A chariot was imported from Egypt for fifteen pounds B of silver, and a horse for nearly four pounds. C In the same way, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram through their agents.
10:1 “The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s fame connected with the name of the LORD and came to test him with riddles.” We may speak of the queen of Sheba coming to Solomon as a type of our coming to Christ. She wanted to prove whether Solomon was as wise as she had been led to believe, and her mode of proving it was by endeavoring to learn from him. She put difficult questions to him in order that she might be instructed by his wisdom. And if we want to ascertain what the wisdom of Christ is, the way to know it is to come and sit at his feet and learn from him. He has himself said, “Take up my yoke and learn from me” (Mt 11:29). The queen came to ask Solomon many questions, and “Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for the king to explain to her” (v. 3). She questioned him about all sorts of things, but I am persuaded she also talked about higher things, things of God; for the text says she came because of “Solomon’s fame connected with the name of the LORD.” So we may rest assured that she put to him many difficult questions concerning the state of her heart, her character, her present position before God, and her future relationship to Israel’s God. Likewise, if we want to know the wisdom of Christ, we must ask him many questions. He knows the things of God as nobody else knows them, for he is one with the Father and with the Spirit. We may come to him, then, with every question that has ever puzzled us and with every doubt that has ever staggered us. When the night is darkest, we may ask him for his light. When the way is roughest, we may lean more than ever on his arm. When the storm is the most fierce, we may trust the Pilot of the Galilean lake. When all around us rocks and reels to and fro like a drunken person, we may find a sure shelter and hiding place in the Rock of ages. We may prove the Lord Jesus in every possible way, for he loves to be tested.
11King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women 2 from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods.” To these women Solomon was deeply attached D in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away.
4 When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been. 5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, and unlike his father David, he did not remain loyal to the LORD.
7 At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab, and for Milcom, E the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.
9 The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the LORD had commanded.
11 Then the LORD said to Solomon, “Since you have done this F and did not keep my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12 However, I will not do it during your lifetime for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of your son’s hand. 13 Yet I will not tear the entire kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem that I chose.”
14 So the LORD raised up Hadad the Edomite as an enemy against Solomon. He was of the royal family in Edom. 15 Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, had gone to bury the dead and had struck down every male in Edom. 16 For Joab and all Israel had remained there six months, until he had killed every male in Edom. 17 Hadad fled to Egypt, along with some Edomites from his father’s servants. At the time Hadad was a small boy. 18 Hadad and his men set out from Midian and went to Paran. They took men with them from Paran and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house, ordered that he be given food, and gave him land. 19 Pharaoh liked Hadad so much G that he gave him a wife, the sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes. 20 Tahpenes’s sister gave birth to Hadad’s son Genubath. Tahpenes herself weaned him in Pharaoh’s palace, and Genubath lived there along with Pharaoh’s sons.
21 When Hadad heard in Egypt that David rested with his fathers and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me leave, so I may go to my own country.”
22 But Pharaoh asked him, “What do you lack here with me for you to want to go back to your own country? ”
“Nothing,” he replied, “but please let me leave.”
23 God raised up Rezon son of Eliada as an enemy against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master King Hadadezer of Zobah 24 and gathered men to himself. He became leader of a raiding party when David killed the Zobaites. He A went to Damascus, lived there, and became king in Damascus. 25 Rezon was Israel’s enemy throughout Solomon’s reign, adding to the trouble Hadad had caused. He reigned over Aram B and loathed Israel.
26 Now Solomon’s servant, Jeroboam son of Nebat, was an Ephraimite from Zeredah. His widowed mother’s name was Zeruah. Jeroboam rebelled against Solomon, 27 and this is the reason he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the supporting terraces and repaired the opening in the wall of the city of his father David. 28 Now the man Jeroboam was capable, and Solomon noticed the young man because he was getting things done. So he appointed him over the entire labor force of the house of Joseph.
29 During that time, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met Jeroboam on the road as Jeroboam came out of Jerusalem. Now Ahijah had wrapped himself with a new cloak, and the two of them were alone in the open field. 30 Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he had on, tore it into twelve pieces, 31 and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand. I will give you ten tribes, 32 but one tribe will remain his for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I chose out of all the tribes of Israel. 33 For they have abandoned me; they have bowed down to Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in my ways to do what is right in my sight and to carry out my statutes and my judgments as his father David did.
34 “ ‘However, I will not take the whole kingdom from him but will let him be ruler all the days of his life for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose and who kept my commands and my statutes. 35 I will take ten tribes of the kingdom from his son and give them to you. 36 I will give one tribe to his son, so that my servant David will always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city I chose for myself to put my name there. 37 I will appoint you, and you will reign as king over all you want, and you will be king over Israel.
38 “ ‘After that, if you obey all I command you, walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight in order to keep my statutes and my commands as my servant David did, I will be with you. I will build you a lasting dynasty just as I built for David, and I will give you Israel. 39 I will humble David’s descendants, because of their unfaithfulness, but not forever.’ ” C
40 Therefore, Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he fled to Egypt, to King Shishak of Egypt, where he remained until Solomon’s death.
41 The rest of the events of Solomon’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and his wisdom, are written in the Book of Solomon’s Events. 42 The length of Solomon’s reign in Jerusalem over all Israel totaled forty years. 43 Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam became king in his place.
F 11:11 Lit “Since this was with you
G 11:19 Lit Hadad found much favor in Pharaoh’s eyes
12Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it, he stayed in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence. Jeroboam stayed in Egypt. D 3 But they summoned him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam: 4 “Your father made our yoke harsh. You, therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”
5 Rehoboam replied, “Go away for three days and then return to me.” So the people left. 6 Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people? ”
7 They replied, “Today if you will be a servant to this people and serve them, and if you respond to them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”
8 But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and attended him. 9 He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’? ”
10 Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us! ’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! 11 Although my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.’ ” A
12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had ordered: “Return to me on the third day.” 13 Then the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the elders had given him 14 and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.”
15 The king did not listen to the people, because this turn of events came from the LORD to carry out his word, which the LORD had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16 When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered him:
What portion do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
Israel, return to your tents;
David, now look after your own house!
So Israel went to their tents, 17 but Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.
18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, B who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into the chariot and flee to Jerusalem. 19 Israel is still in rebellion against the house of David today.
20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone. 21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized one hundred eighty thousand fit young soldiers from the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon. 22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God: 23 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 ‘This is what the LORD says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you return home, for this situation is from me.’ ”
So they listened to the word of the LORD and went back according to the word of the LORD.
25 Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built Penuel. 26 Jeroboam said to himself, “The kingdom might now return to the house of David. 27 If these people regularly go to offer sacrifices in the LORD’s temple in Jerusalem, the heart of these people will return to their lord, King Rehoboam of Judah. They will kill me and go back to the king of Judah.” 28 So the king sought advice.
Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, “Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here are your gods A who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 29 He set up one in Bethel, and put the other in Dan. 30 This led to sin; the people walked in procession before one of the calves all the way to Dan. B
31 Jeroboam also made shrines C on the high places and made priests from the ranks of the people who were not Levites. 32 Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had made. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had made. 33 He offered sacrifices on D the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own. He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.
12:24 “This is what the LORD says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you return home, for this situation is from me.” Here is one Shemaiah—many have never heard of him before—and perhaps not again. He appears once in this history and then he vanishes. But it would be a grand thing to preach only one sermon and to be as successful as Shemaiah was. It would be far better than to preach ten thousand and to accomplish nothing by them all. Let us therefore earnestly pray to God that we may preach as “a dying man to dying men” (Richard Baxter) and deliver each discourse as if that one message was enough to serve for our whole lifework. We need not wish to preach another sermon provided we are enabled to so deliver that one that the purpose of God will be accomplished by us and the power of his Word will be seen in our hearers.
This text also shows that God is in events that are produced by people’s sin and stupidity. This breaking up of the kingdom of Solomon into two parts was the result of Solomon’s sin and Rehoboam’s folly, yet God was in it. God had nothing to do with the sin or the folly, but in some way that we can never explain—in a mysterious way in which we are to believe without hesitation—God was in it all. The most notable instance of this truth of God is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ; that was the greatest of human crimes, yet it was foreordained and predetermined by the Most High—to whom there can be no such thing as crime nor any sort of compact with sin. We know not how it is, but it is an undoubted fact that a thing may be from God and yet it may be worked, as we see in this case, by human folly and wickedness.
D 12:2 LXX, Vg read Jeroboam returned from Egypt ; 2Ch 10:2
A 12:11 Lit with scorpions, also in v. 14
B 12:18 LXX reads Adoniram ; 1Kg 4:6; 5:14
A 12:28 Or here is your God, or here is your god
B 12:30 Some LXX mss read calves to Bethel and the other to Dan
13A man of God came, however, from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense. 2 The man of God cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD: “Altar, altar, this is what the LORD says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’ ” 3 He gave a sign that day. He said, “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: ‘The altar will now be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.’ ”
4 When the king heard the message that the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Arrest him! ” But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself. 5 The altar was ripped apart, and the ashes poured from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
6 Then the king responded to the man of God, “Plead for the favor of the LORD your God and pray for me so that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God pleaded for the favor of the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it had been at first.
7 Then the king declared to the man of God, “Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I’ll give you a reward.”
8 But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house, I still wouldn’t go with you, and I wouldn’t eat food or drink water in this place, 9 for this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat food or drink water or go back the way you came.’ ” 10 So he went another way; he did not go back by the way he had come to Bethel.
11 Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel. His son A came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. His sons also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king. 12 Then their father asked them, “Which way did he go? ” His sons had seen B the way taken by the man of God who had come from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it. 14 He followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah? ”
“I am,” he said.
15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat some food.”
16 But he answered, “I cannot go back with you or accompany you; I will not eat food or drink water with you in this place. 17 For a message came to me by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat food or drink water there or go back by the way you came.’ ”
18 He said to him, “I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat food and drink water.’ ” The old prophet deceived him, 19 and the man of God went back with him, ate food in his house, and drank water.
20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back, 21 and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you rebelled against the LORD’s command and did not keep the command that the LORD your God commanded you — 22 but you went back and ate food and drank water in the place that he said to you, “Do not eat food and do not drink water” — your corpse will never reach the grave of your fathers.’ ”
23 So after he had eaten food and after he had drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back. 24 When he left, C a lion attacked D him along the way and killed him. His corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too.
25 There were men passing by who saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and spoke about it in the city where the old prophet lived. 26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his way heard about it, he said, “He is the man of God who disobeyed the LORD’s command. The LORD has given him to the lion, and it has mauled and killed him, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke to him.”
27 Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” They saddled it, 28 and he went and found the corpse thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse or mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came into the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 Then he laid the corpse in his own grave, and they mourned over him: “Oh, my brother! ”
31 After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones, 32 for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria is certain to happen.”
33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way but again made priests for the high places from the ranks of the people. He ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests of the high places. 34 This was the sin that caused the house of Jeroboam to be cut off and obliterated from the face of the earth.
A 13:11 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Vg read sons
B 13:12 LXX, Syr, Tg, Vg read sons showed him
14At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became sick. 2 Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go disguise yourself, so they won’t know that you’re Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. The prophet Ahijah is there; it was he who told about me becoming king over this people. 3 Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”
4 Jeroboam’s wife did that: she went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Ahijah could not see; he was blind A due to his age. 5 But the LORD had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming soon to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will be disguised.”
6 When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised? I have bad news for you. 7 Go tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the LORD God of Israel says: I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over my people Israel, 8 tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you. But you were not like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what is right in my sight. 9 You behaved more wickedly than all who were before you. In order to anger me, you have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and cast images, but you have flung me behind your back. 10 Because of all this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam:
I will wipe out all of Jeroboam’s males, B
both slave and free, C in Israel;
I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam
as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone!
11Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city,
the dogs will eat,
and anyone who dies in the field,
the birds D will eat,
for the LORD has spoken! ’
12 “As for you, get up and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die. 13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone out of Jeroboam’s house will be given a proper burial because out of the house of Jeroboam something favorable to the LORD God of Israel was found in him. 14 The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who will wipe out the house of Jeroboam. This is the day, yes, A even today! 15 For the LORD will strike Israel so that they will B shake as a reed shakes in water. He will uproot Israel from this good soil that he gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates because they made their Asherah poles, angering the LORD. 16 He will give up Israel because of Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit.”
QUOTE 14:13
Out of the worst and most unpromising of places—where God is most forgotten and his truth least known and despised—the Lord will bring testifiers to the truth of God as it is in Jesus.
17 Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As she was crossing the threshold of the house, the boy died. 18 He was buried, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD he had spoken through his servant the prophet Ahijah.
19 As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he waged war and how he reigned, note that they are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. 20 The length of Jeroboam’s reign was twenty-two years. He rested with his fathers, and his son Nadab became king in his place.
21 Now Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name. Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.
22 Judah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. They provoked him to jealous anger more than all that their ancestors had done with the sins they committed. 23 They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree; 24 there were even male cult prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites.
25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem. 26 He seized the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took all the gold shields that Solomon had made. 27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and committed them into the care of the captains of the guards A who protected the entrance to the king’s palace. 28 Whenever the king entered the LORD’s temple, the guards would carry the shields, then they would take them back to the armory. B
29 The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written about in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. 30 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their reigns. 31 Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. His son Abijam C became king in his place.
14:4-5 “Ahijah could not see; he was blind due to his age. But the LORD had said to Ahijah, ‘Jeroboam’s wife is coming soon to ask you about her son, for he is sick.’” Ahijah the prophet was blind. Blind, but yet in the highest sense a seer, looking into the invisible, and by faith beholding things we who have our sight can never see. Ahijah beheld what eye has not seen and heard what ear has never heard. This then may furnish a word of comfort at the outset to any who are suffering under infirmity: Jesus can mend us. We are not the only persons who have been called to suffer; many of the blind have been gifted with spiritual sight. If we have lost hearing, or the use of any of the members of our bodies, we should remember that no strange thing has happened to us “except what is common to humanity” (1Co 10:13). There is a way by which our consolations may abound through Jesus Christ. These losses that we feel so sadly, which so loudly demand our sympathy, may, by God’s love, be transmuted into mercies by a holy alchemy, which really turns iron into gold. He can turn our losses into gains and our curses into blessings. We may imagine the venerable prophet thinking that his usefulness was at an end, that it was time for the Master to call him away. But no, he does not. Ahijah must not die; he has another message to deliver, and he is immortal till his work is done. I have no doubt he slept sweetly after he had delivered his last message but not till then.
14:13 “Out of the house of Jeroboam something favorable to the LORD God of Israel was found in him.” In the wicked house and family of Jeroboam, there was one godly child—and death, which often mysteriously cuts down the green wheat, while it leaves the hemlock to ripen—seized this one and laid him low. Yet though he must die, there was this consolatory thought about his death, that he was the only one of the family that would ever have an honored burial, for all the others were to be slain by a death so sudden and violent that they were to be eaten by the fowls of the air or devoured by the dogs. This child was to be the only one who should have a funeral attended by mourners because he was the only child of the whole family in whose heart there was found “something favorable to the LORD God of Israel.” Of all the houses of Israel, the palace of Tirzah was surely the last place one would think in which to look for a worshiper of the true God. The father of the family was a great sinner. He had set up gods of gold for Israel to worship. And yet God’s sovereign, electing love was bestowed on a child of this wicked and rebellious Jeroboam. God’s everlasting mercy had designed that there should be a break in the line of sin and that at least one should be found among the choir singers of glory who had been nursed and nurtured among the degraded worship of calves. Never despair for the church. Out of the house of Jeroboam, God will bring his Ahijahs; and out of the worst and most unpromising of places—where God is most forgotten and his truth least known and despised—the Lord will bring testifiers to the truth of God as it is in Jesus.
A 14:4 Lit see, for his eyes stood ; 1Sm 4:15
B 14:10 Lit eliminate Jeroboam’s one who urinates against the wall
C 14:10 Or males, even the weak and impaired ; Hb obscure
B 14:15 so that they will supplied for clarity
15In the eighteenth year of Israel’s King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah, 2 and he reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah daughter D of Abishalom.
3 Abijam walked in all the sins his father before him had committed, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God as his ancestor David had been. 4 But for the sake of David, the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up his son after him and by preserving Jerusalem. 5 For David did what was right in the LORD’s sight, and he did not turn aside from anything he had commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hethite.
6 There had been war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of Rehoboam’s life. 7 The rest of the events of Abijam’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. There was also war between Abijam and Jeroboam. 8 Abijam rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place.
9 In the twentieth year of Israel’s King Jeroboam, Asa became king of Judah, 10 and he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s E name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom.
11 Asa did what was right in the LORD’s sight, as his ancestor David had done. 12 He banished the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all of the idols that his fathers had made. 13 He also removed his grandmother F Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 14 The high places were not taken away, but Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his entire life. 15 He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into the LORD’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.
16 There was war between Asa and King Baasha of Israel throughout their reigns. 17 Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to keep anyone from leaving or coming to King Asa of Judah. 18 So Asa withdrew all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace and gave it to his servants. Then King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion king of Aram who lived in Damascus, saying, 19 “There is a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go and break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.”
20 Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. He attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, all Chinnereth, and the whole land of Naphtali. 21 When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stayed in Tirzah. 22 Then King Asa gave a command to everyone without exception in Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah with them.
23 The rest of all the events of Asa’s reign, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. But in his old age he developed a disease in his feet. 24 Then Asa rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his ancestor David. His son Jehoshaphat became king in his place.
25 Nadab son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Judah’s King Asa; he reigned over Israel two years. 26 Nadab did what was evil in the LORD’s sight and walked in the ways of his father and the sin he had caused Israel to commit.
27 Then Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against Nadab, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon of the Philistines while Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibbethon. 28 In the third year of Judah’s King Asa, Baasha killed Nadab and reigned in his place.
29 When Baasha became king, he struck down the entire house of Jeroboam. He did not leave Jeroboam any survivors but A destroyed his family according to the word of the LORD he had spoken through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite. 30 This was because Jeroboam had angered B the LORD God of Israel by the sins he had committed and had caused Israel to commit.
31 The rest of the events of Nadab’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. 32 There was war between Asa and King Baasha of Israel throughout their reigns.
33 In the third year of Judah’s King Asa, Baasha son of Ahijah became king over all Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah twenty-four years. 34 He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight and walked in the ways of Jeroboam and the sin he had caused Israel to commit.
D 15:2 Possibly granddaughter, also in v. 10; 2Ch 13:2
16Now the word of the LORD came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha: 2 “Because I raised you up from the dust and made you ruler over my people Israel, but you have walked in the ways of Jeroboam and have caused my people Israel to sin, angering me with their sins, 3 take note: I will eradicate Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat:
4Anyone who belongs to Baasha and dies in the city,
the dogs will eat,
and anyone who is his and dies in the field,
the birds C will eat.”
5 The rest of the events of Baasha’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and might, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. 6 Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah became king in his place. 7 But through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani the word of the LORD also had come against Baasha and against his house because of all the evil he had done in the LORD’s sight. His actions angered the LORD, and Baasha’s house became like the house of Jeroboam, because he had struck it down.
8 In the twenty-sixth year of Judah’s King Asa, Elah son of Baasha became king over Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah two years.
9 His servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza, who was in charge of the household at Tirzah. 10 In the twenty-seventh year of Judah’s King Asa, Zimri went in, struck Elah down, killing him. Then Zimri became king in his place.
11 When he became king, as soon as he was seated on his throne, Zimri struck down the entire house of Baasha. He did not leave a single male, A including his kinsmen and his friends. 12 So Zimri destroyed the entire house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD he had spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu. 13 This happened because of all the sins of Baasha and those of his son Elah, which they committed and caused Israel to commit, angering the LORD God of Israel with their worthless idols.
14 The rest of the events of Elah’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.
15 In the twenty-seventh year of Judah’s King Asa, Zimri became king for seven days in Tirzah. Now the troops were encamped against Gibbethon of the Philistines. 16 When these troops heard that Zimri had not only conspired but had also struck down the king, then all Israel made Omri, the army commander, king over Israel that very day in the camp. 17 Omri along with all Israel marched up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah. 18 When Zimri saw that the city was captured, he entered the citadel of the royal palace and burned it down over himself. He died 19 because of the sin he committed by doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and by walking in the ways of Jeroboam and the sin he caused Israel to commit.
20 The rest of the events of Zimri’s reign, along with the conspiracy that he instigated, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. 21 At that time the people of Israel were divided: half the people followed Tibni son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. 22 However, the people who followed Omri proved stronger than those who followed Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.
23 In the thirty-first year of Judah’s King Asa, Omri became king over Israel, and he reigned twelve years. He reigned six years in Tirzah, 24 then he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for 150 pounds B of silver, and he built up the hill. He named the city he built Samaria C based on the name Shemer, the owner of the hill.
25 Omri did what was evil in the LORD’s sight; he did more evil than all who were before him. 26 He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat in every respect and continued in his sins that he caused Israel to commit, angering the LORD God of Israel with their worthless idols. 27 The rest of the events of Omri’s reign, along with his accomplishments and the might he exercised, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. 28 Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. His son Ahab became king in his place.
29 Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Judah’s King Asa; Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 But Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the LORD’s sight more than all who were before him. 31 Then, as if following the sin of Jeroboam son of Nebat were not enough, he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and then proceeded to serve Baal and bow in worship to him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole. Ahab did more to anger the LORD God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
34 During his reign, Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho. At the cost of Abiram his firstborn, he laid its foundation, and at the cost of Segub his youngest, he finished its gates, according to the word of the LORD he had spoken through Joshua son of Nun.
17Now Elijah the Tishbite, from the Gilead settlers, A said to Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand, there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command! ”
2 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. 4 You are to drink from the wadi. I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.”
5 So he proceeded to do what the LORD commanded. Elijah left and lived at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. 6 The ravens kept bringing him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and he would drink from the wadi. 7 After a while, the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
QUOTE 17:7
The highest degree of grace cannot save us from affliction; it even includes it.
8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 “Get up, go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.” 10 So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.” 11 As she went to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
12 But she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I don’t have anything baked — only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil in the jug. Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.”
13 Then Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid; go and do as you have said. But first make me a small loaf from it and bring it out to me. Afterward, you may make some for yourself and your son, 14 for this is what the LORD God of Israel says, ‘The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the surface of the land.’ ”
15 So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. Then the woman, Elijah, and her household ate for many days. 16 The flour jar did not become empty, and the oil jug did not run dry, according to the word of the LORD he had spoken through A Elijah.
17 After this, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. His illness got worse until he stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “Man of God, why are you here? Have you come to call attention to my iniquity so that my son is put to death? ”
19 But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, brought him up to the upstairs room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD and said, “LORD my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son? ” 21 Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times. He cried out to the LORD and said, “LORD my God, please let this boy’s life come into him again! ”
22 So the LORD listened to Elijah, and the boy’s life came into him again, and he lived. 23 Then Elijah took the boy, brought him down from the upstairs room into the house, and gave him to his mother. Elijah said, “Look, your son is alive.”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know you are a man of God and the LORD’s word from your mouth is true.”
17:4 “I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” God has the power to make all creatures obedient to his will. These ravens never croaked out a single objection but did as they were commanded. Their instincts did not rebel, but they submitted absolutely to God’s will and, I daresay, were as diligent and as happy in carrying the bread and meat to Elijah as they would have been if they had been taking it to their own young or feasting on it themselves. The whole world is obedient to God. He spoke once to the great floods of water, and up they sprang from the vast caverns where they slept, and down they dashed. And when God just whispered to them and bid them go back to their resting places, back they went, and the waters were removed from the earth. Nor were the floods of earth merely obedient, for celestial bodies have confessed his power, for Joshua made the sun and the moon stand still while the Lord’s warriors struck their foes. Nor are inanimate things his only sway. The lions crouch at Daniel’s feet, and the monster fish swallows but does not destroy the wayward Jonah. Nor do only great things obey him. The worm at God’s command struck the root of Jonah’s gourd, the locusts came on Egypt, and he sent all manner of flies and lice in all their quarters. Is it not a sad, strange thing that humans are the only creatures that refuse to obey their Creator? I know that even Judas fulfills that to which he was appointed, but so far as his will is concerned, man remains a stout rebel against God. The raven, commanded to carry bread and meat, does it; but the unbeliever commanded to believe in Christ, to repent of his sins, and to produce the fruit of repentance, refuses to do it. Oh, the stubbornness of human nature! We are worse than ravens. “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s feeding trough, but Israel does not know; my people do not understand” (Is 1:3).
17:7 “After a while, the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land.” Although Elijah was mighty in prayer and could prevail with God, yet he did not therefore escape from suffering; his prayer brought him into suffering. If there should be a drought throughout all the land, he himself must feel the pinch as well as the rest of the people. If the brooks are dried up, they will be dried up for him; and if there is no food in the land, there will be no food for him unless God will be pleased to intervene on his behalf. The highest degree of grace cannot save us from affliction; it even includes it. We may grow in grace until our faith never staggers. But the impartial hand of trial will knock at our door as well as at the door of the chief of sinners. We must still walk the path of sorrow. The child of God cannot escape the rod even though he is an Elijah. He may call down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, but no fire from heaven can consume his trouble. He must pass through it as well as the weakest and most common of God’s people. Let us, therefore, settle it in our hearts to be resigned to this. If the Prince himself once went through the Valley of Humiliation, why should we murmur at following in his footsteps? God had one Son without sin but never a son without affliction. Let us not ask to be the first but be content to share the position of those whose inheritance is to be ours forever in the paradise of our God.
17:16 “The flour jar did not become empty, and the oil jug did not run dry, according to the word of the LORD he had spoken through Elijah.” In the midst of wrath, God remembers mercy. Divine love is rendered conspicuous when it shines in the midst of judgments. God had sent an all-consuming famine on the lands of Israel and Sidon. The two peoples had provoked the Most High, the one by renouncing him and the other by sending their queen Jezebel to teach idolatry in Israel. God therefore determined to withhold both dew and rain from the polluted lands. But while he did this, he took care that his own chosen ones would be secure. If all the brooks are dry, yet there will be one reserved for Elijah. And if that should fail, God will still preserve for him a place of sustenance. And God had not simply one Elijah, but he had a remnant according to the election of grace, who were hidden by fifties in a cave. Though the whole land was subject to famine, these in the cave were fed even from Ahab’s table—by his faithful, God-fearing steward, Obadiah. Come what may, God’s people are safe. If the world is to be burned with fire, among the ashes there will not be found the relics of a saint. And if God cannot save his people under heaven, he will save them in heaven.
18After a long time, the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year: “Go and present yourself to Ahab. I will send rain on the surface of the land.” 2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.
The famine was severe in Samaria. 3 Ahab called for Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. Obadiah was a man who greatly feared the LORD 4 and took a hundred prophets and hid them, fifty men to a cave, and provided them with food and water when Jezebel slaughtered the LORD’s prophets. 5 Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to every spring and to every wadi. Perhaps we’ll find grass so we can keep the horses and mules alive and not have to destroy any cattle.” 6 They divided the land between them in order to cover it. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went the other way by himself.
7 While Obadiah was walking along the road, Elijah suddenly met him. When Obadiah recognized him, he fell facedown and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah? ”
8 “It is I,” he replied. “Go tell your lord, ‘Elijah is here! ’ ” A
9 But Obadiah said, “What sin have I committed, that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to put me to death? 10 As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent someone to search for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made that kingdom or nation swear they had not found you.
11 “Now you say, ‘Go tell your lord, “Elijah is here! ” ’ 12 But when I leave you, the Spirit of the LORD may carry you off to some place I don’t know. Then when I go report to Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth. 13 Wasn’t it reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel slaughtered the LORD’s prophets? I hid a hundred of the prophets of the LORD, fifty men to a cave, and I provided them with food and water. 14 Now you say, ‘Go tell your lord, “Elijah is here! ” ’ He will kill me! ”
15 Then Elijah said, “As the LORD of Armies lives, in whose presence I stand, today I will present myself to Ahab.”
16 Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him. Then Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, the one ruining Israel? ”
18 He replied, “I have not ruined Israel, but you and your father’s family have, because you have abandoned the LORD’s commands and followed the Baals. 19 Now summon all Israel to meet me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
20 So Ahab summoned all the Israelites and gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. 21 Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? B If the LORD is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him.” But the people didn’t answer him a word.
22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I am the only remaining prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. 23 Let two bulls be given to us. They are to choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and place it on the wood but not light the fire. I will prepare the other bull and place it on the wood but not light the fire. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The God who answers with fire, he is God.”
All the people answered, “That’s fine.”
25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Since you are so numerous, choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first. Then call on the name of your god but don’t light the fire.”
26 So they took the bull that he gave them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Baal, answer us! ” But there was no sound; no one answered. Then they danced A around the altar they had made.
27 At noon Elijah mocked them. He said, “Shout loudly, for he’s a god! Maybe he’s thinking it over; maybe he has wandered away; B or maybe he’s on the road. Perhaps he’s sleeping and will wake up! ” 28 They shouted loudly, and cut themselves with knives and spears, according to their custom, until blood gushed over them. 29 All afternoon they kept on raving until the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound; no one answered, no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near me.” So all the people approached him. Then he repaired the LORD’s altar that had been torn down: 31 Elijah took twelve stones — according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Israel will be your name” — 32 and he built an altar with the stones in the name of the LORD. Then he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold about four gallons. C,D 33 Next, he arranged the wood, cut up the bull, and placed it on the wood. He said, “Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the offering to be burned and on the wood.” 34 Then he said, “A second time! ” and they did it a second time. And then he said, “A third time! ” and they did it a third time. 35 So the water ran all around the altar; he even filled the trench with water.
36 At the time for offering the evening sacrifice, the prophet Elijah approached the altar and said, “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that at your word I have done all these things. 37 Answer me, LORD! Answer me so that this people will know that you, the LORD, are God and that you have turned their hearts back.”
QUOTE 18:36
If we will only trust the Lord so as to do what he says, he will never fail us, and he will see us through, though earth and hell should stand in the way.
38 Then the LORD’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 When all the people saw it, they fell facedown and said, “The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God! ”
40 Then Elijah ordered them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let even one of them escape.” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon and slaughtered them there. 41 Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a rainstorm.”
42 So Ahab went to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the summit of Carmel. He bent down on the ground and put his face between his knees. 43 Then he said to his servant, “Go up and look toward the sea.”
So he went up, looked, and said, “There’s nothing.”
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”
44 On the seventh time, he reported, “There’s a cloud as small as a man’s hand coming up from the sea.”
Then Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Get your chariot ready and go down so the rain doesn’t stop you.’ ”
45 In a little while, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and there was a downpour. So Ahab got in his chariot and went to Jezreel. 46 The power of the LORD was on Elijah, and he tucked his mantle under his belt and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
18:3-4 “Ahab called for Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. Obadiah was a man who greatly feared the LORD and took a hundred prophets and hid them, fifty men to a cave, and provided them with food and water when Jezebel slaughtered the LORD’s prophets.” God will never leave himself without witnesses in this world, even in the worst places of the world. What a horrible abode Ahab’s court must have been for a believer! If there had been no sinner there but that woman, Jezebel, she was enough to make the palace a sinkhole of iniquity. Yet in that court where Jezebel was mistress, the chamberlain was a man who greatly feared God. We should never be surprised to meet with a believer anywhere. Grace can live where we would never expect to see it survive for an hour. Joseph feared God in the court of Pharaoh. Daniel was a trusted counselor of Nebuchadnezzar. Mordecai waited at the gate of Ahasuerus, and there were saints in Caesar’s household. Think of finding diamonds on such a dunghill as Nero’s palace. Those who feared God in Rome were not only Christians, but they were examples to all other Christians for their brotherly love and generosity. Surely there is no place without some light of God—the darkest cavern of iniquity has its torch.
18:21 “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him.” It was a day to be remembered when the multitudes of Israel were assembled at the foot of Carmel and when the solitary prophet of the Lord came forth to defy the 450 priests of the false god. We have on that hill of Carmel and along the plain three kinds of persons. We have first the devoted servant of Jehovah, a solitary prophet. We have, on the other hand, the decided servants of the evil one, the 450 prophets of Baal. But the vast mass of that day belonged to a third class—those who had not determined whether to fully worship Jehovah, the God of their fathers, or Baal, the god of Jezebel. Their ancient traditions led them to fear Jehovah, but their interest at court led them to bow before Baal. Many of them were secret and halfhearted followers of Jehovah while they were the public worshipers of Baal. Elijah’s discourse was directed to this third group. Most of the people who were before him thought Jehovah was God and Baal was God, too. For this reason the worship of both was consistent. “I will build in my house,” said one of them, “an altar for Jehovah here and an altar for Baal there. I am of one opinion; I believe them both to be God.” “No, no,” said Elijah, “it cannot be so! They are two and must be two.” Many today say, “I am worldly but I am religious, too!” It can’t be done; they are distinct and separate. If God is God, serve him and do it thoroughly. But if this world is god, serve it and make no profession of religion. “No one can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24). How many respectable churchgoers think they can be covetous and grasping in business and grind the faces of the poor and yet be saints. How many women received into church fellowship are found to be full of wrath and bitterness—slaves of mischief and of sin—slanderers and busybodies. If we make a profession to be a Christian, we must be one! But if we are not Christian, we must not pretend to be. If we love the world, then let’s love it, but let’s cast off the mask and not be hypocrites. The double-minded person, who wears two faces, is the most despicable because he is not honest enough to go through with what he professes.
18:36 “Let it be known that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that at your word I have done all these things.” We might question what right the prophet had to restrain the clouds or to put God’s honor to the test. Suppose the Lord had not willed to answer him by fire? Had he any right to make the God’s glory hang on such terms as he proposed? The answer is that he had done all these things according to God’s word. It was no whim of his to chastise the nation with a drought. It was no scheme of his, concocted in his own brain, that he should put the Godhead of Jehovah or of Baal to the test by a sacrifice to be consumed by miraculous fire. Whenever he takes a step, it is preceded by the Lord’s word. He never acts by himself; God is at his back. He moves according to the divine will and speaks according to the divine teaching. Elijah’s character stands out not as an example of reckless daring but as the example of a man of sound mind. Faith in God is true wisdom, the highest form of common sense. To believe the one who cannot lie and trust the one who cannot fail is a kind of wisdom that only fools laugh at. An ambassador never dreams that his authorized acts will be repudiated by his king. If someone acts as our agent and does our bidding, the responsibility for his acts lies with us, and we must back him up. If we will only trust the Lord so as to do what he says, he will never fail us, and he will see us through, though earth and hell should stand in the way.
18:40 “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let even one of them escape.” Elijah may be called the Iron Prophet; he was a stern and brave man who did not flinch to deliver his Master’s message at all hazards. The Sidonian queen, Jezebel, had issued her mandate that the prophets of Jehovah should be slain, a mandate which was all too well obeyed. No one could stand before this tigress until Elijah came and dared her malice to do its worst. That lone man, of heroic soul, stemmed the fearful torrent of idolatry and, like a rock in midcurrent, firmly stood his ground. He was more than a match for all the priests of the palace and the groves, even as one lion scatters a flock of sheep. He had proved the prophets of Baal to be liars and pretenders and then went on to the natural conclusion. The law of Israel was, “That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he has urged rebellion against the LORD your God . . . to turn you from the way the LORD your God has commanded you to walk” (Dt 13:5). Therefore, the case being proven before all men, Elijah commanded the people to seize the impostors, and he himself purpled the Wadi Kishon with their blood. The man did his Master’s will thoroughly, never dreaming of compromise. Perhaps for this reason he, with but one other born of woman, ascended to heaven by an unusual road. The God who made him so grandly faithful had determined that he who passed through the world differently from others should pass out of it differently, and he who had in life flamed like a seraph should in a chariot of fire be carried to his reward.
A 18:8 The Hb words translated ‘Elijah is here’ also mean ‘Look, my God is the LORD’
B 18:21 Lit you hobble on two crutches?
B 18:27 Or has turned aside ; possibly to relieve himself
C 18:32 LXX reads trench containing two measures of seed
D 18:32 Lit altar corresponding to a house of two seahs of seed
19Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods punish me and do so severely if I don’t make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow! ”
3 Then Elijah became afraid A and immediately ran for his life. When he came to Beer-sheba that belonged to Judah, he left his servant there, 4 but he went on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. He said, “I have had enough! LORD, take my life, for I’m no better than my fathers.” 5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree.
Suddenly, an angel touched him. The angel told him, “Get up and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there at his head was a loaf of bread baked over hot stones, and a jug of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 Then the angel of the LORD returned for a second time and touched him. He said, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” 8 So he got up, ate, and drank. Then on the strength from that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 He entered a cave there and spent the night.
Suddenly, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah? ”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of Armies, but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are looking for me to take my life.”
11 Then he said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the LORD’s presence.”
At that moment, the LORD passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah? ”
14 “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of Armies,” he replied, “but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they’re looking for me to take my life.”
15 Then the LORD said to him, “Go and return by the way you came to the Wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16 You are to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 17 Then Jehu will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Jehu. 18 But I will leave seven thousand in Israel — every knee that has not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
19 Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat as he was plowing. Twelve teams of oxen were in front of him, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah walked by him and threw his mantle over him. 20 Elisha left the oxen, ran to follow Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you.”
“Go on back,” he replied, “for what have I done to you? ”
21 So he turned back from following him, took the team of oxen, and slaughtered A them. With the oxen’s wooden yoke and plow, he cooked the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he left, followed Elijah, and served him.
19:4 “I have had enough! LORD, take my life, for I’m no better than my fathers.”
When we read the Scriptures in our youth, we are often astonished at the peculiar conditions in which we find even good people. It is difficult for us to understand why David could be in such distress and why such a man as Elijah could be so dreadfully depressed. As we get older, and as trials multiply around us, we can better understand why God allowed his ancient servants to be put into such peculiar situations, for we find ourselves in similar places. We might wonder why Elijah should get under a broom tree. We can understand his attitude on Mount Carmel and comprehend his slaughtering the prophets of Baal, but we ask in perplexity, “What are you doing here, Elijah, under a broom tree, or away there in a cave on the hillside?” (see 19:9). But when we get under the broom tree ourselves, we are glad to recall the fact that Elijah once sat there. And when we are hiding away in the cave, it is a source of comfort to us to remember that such a man as this great prophet of Israel was there before us. He, too, could grow weary of his appointed service and ask to be allowed to die. The best of people are but people at the best. He was one whose spirit could be depressed even to the uttermost, just as the spirit of any one of us might be. He failed, as all God’s people have done. I scarcely know of any exception in all the biographies of the Old or New Testament. It is some comfort to us when we see that we are not the only persons who have failed through the infirmity of the flesh. I do not hold up Elijah’s passions as any excuse for us to indulge them, but if any are almost driven to despair because such passions have overcome them, let them shake off that despair. Nobody doubts that Elijah was a child of God. God loved him even when he sat trembling under the broom tree.
19:12 “And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper.” God here teaches Elijah that although he does use the wind, the earthquake, and the fire when he pleases, these are not his most effective instruments. He does not do his mightiest works by them but in another way—by a soft voice. Thus the Lord practically said to Elijah, “Gentler means must be tried with these rebellious people. My glory will be promoted among them by other methods than you have as yet used, or than I have used by you as my servant. I have let them see that I am Lord and Master of the terrible forces of nature. I have convinced them that I am a great God who can strike them as much as I please, but I have not thereby won their hearts—other methods must be used. The soft voice must be tried.” To all of us who preach the Word, or who try to teach it in any way, God seems to say, “Do not trust in great displays of force, in tremendous demonstrations of power; trust rather in the soft influences of the distilling dew of God’s Spirit and the gentle rain of the gospel. Preach the Word to the sons and daughters of Adam.” A temptation assails all of us who preach to want to do some great thing. We fancy that if we could preach such a famous sermon as Jonathan Edwards delivered when he spoke of sinners in the hands of an angry God, then we should have lived to some purpose. But the preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified never loses its power. The telling over and over again of “the old, old story of Jesus and his love” never becomes a mere repetition if with warm heart and loving spirit we still cry to our hearers, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). There may be no excitement in our congregation; no sensation may be created by our preaching. But the Lord will be in it. He always has been in such preaching as that, and he always will be.
20Now King Ben-hadad of Aram assembled his entire army. Thirty-two kings, along with horses and chariots, were with him. He marched up, besieged Samaria, and fought against it. 2 He sent messengers into the city to King Ahab of Israel and said to him, “This is what Ben-hadad says: 3 ‘Your silver and your gold are mine! And your best wives and children are mine as well! ’ ”
4 Then the king of Israel answered, “Just as you say, my lord the king: I am yours, along with all that I have.”
5 The messengers then returned and said, “This is what Ben-hadad says: ‘I have sent messengers to you, saying: You are to give me your silver, your gold, your wives, and your children. 6 But at this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, B and they will search your palace and your servants’ houses. They will lay their hands on and take away whatever is precious to you.’ ”
7 Then the king of Israel called for all the elders of the land and said, “Recognize C that this one is only looking for trouble, for he demanded my wives, my children, my silver, and my gold, and I didn’t turn him down.”
8 All the elders and all the people said to him, “Don’t listen or agree.”
9 So he said to Ben-hadad’s messengers, “Say to my lord the king, ‘Everything you demanded of your servant the first time, I will do, but this thing I cannot do.’ ” So the messengers left and took word back to him.
10 Then Ben-hadad sent messengers to him and said, “May the gods punish me and do so severely if Samaria’s dust amounts to a handful for each of the people who follow me.”
11 The king of Israel answered, “Say this: ‘Don’t let the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.’ ”
QUOTE 20:11
We do not always perform what we think we will, nor do we always reach where we hope to arrive; failures are as numerous as successes, and even the most successful have failures to mourn over. The gist of all I have said is this: we should trust in God but distrust ourselves.
12 When Ben-hadad heard this response, while he and the kings were drinking in their quarters, A he said to his servants, “Take your positions.” So they took their positions against the city.
13 A prophet approached King Ahab of Israel and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Do you see this whole huge army? Watch, I am handing it over to you today so that you may know that I am the LORD.’ ”
14 Ahab asked, “By whom? ”
And the prophet said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘By the young men of the provincial leaders.’ ”
Then he asked, “Who is to start the battle? ”
He said, “You.”
15 So Ahab mobilized the young men of the provincial leaders, and there were 232. After them he mobilized all the Israelite troops: 7,000. 16 They marched out at noon while Ben-hadad and the thirty-two kings who were helping him were getting drunk in their quarters. 17 The young men of the provincial leaders marched out first. Then Ben-hadad sent out scouts, and they reported to him, saying, “Men are marching out of Samaria.”
18 So he said, “If they have marched out in peace, take them alive, and if they have marched out for battle, take them alive.”
19 The young men of the provincial leaders and the army behind them marched out from the city, 20 and each one struck down his opponent. So the Arameans fled and Israel pursued them, but King Ben-hadad of Aram escaped on a horse with the cavalry. 21 Then the king of Israel marched out and attacked the cavalry and the chariots. He inflicted a severe slaughter on Aram.
22 The prophet approached the king of Israel and said to him, “Go and strengthen yourself, then consider carefully B what you should do, for in the spring the king of Aram will attack you.”
23 Now the king of Aram’s servants said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hill country. That’s why they were stronger than we were. Instead, we should fight with them on the plain; then we will certainly be stronger than they are. 24 Also do this: remove each king from his position and appoint captains in their place. 25 Raise another army for yourself like the army you lost — horse for horse, chariot for chariot — and let’s fight with them on the plain; and we will certainly be stronger than they are.” The king listened to them and did it.
26 In the spring, Ben-hadad mobilized the Arameans and went up to Aphek to battle Israel. 27 The Israelites mobilized, gathered supplies, and went to fight them. The Israelites camped in front of them like two little flocks of goats, while the Arameans filled the landscape.
28 Then the man of God approached and said to the king of Israel, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Arameans have said: The LORD is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys, I will hand over all this whole huge army to you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ”
29 They camped opposite each other for seven days. On the seventh day, the battle took place, and the Israelites struck down the Arameans — one hundred thousand foot soldiers in one day. 30 The ones who remained fled into the city of Aphek, and the wall fell on those twenty-seven thousand remaining men.
Ben-hadad also fled and went into an inner room in the city. 31 His servants said to him, “Consider this: we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. So let’s put sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads, and let’s go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.”
32 So they dressed with sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, went to the king of Israel, and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please spare my life.’ ”
So he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
33 Now the men were looking for a sign of hope, so they quickly picked up on this A and responded, “Yes, it is your brother Ben-hadad.”
Then he said, “Go and bring him.”
So Ben-hadad came out to him, and Ahab had him come up into the chariot. 34 Then Ben-hadad said to him, “I restore to you the cities that my father took from your father, and you may set up marketplaces for yourself in Damascus, like my father set up in Samaria.”
Ahab responded, “On the basis of this treaty, I release you.” So he made a treaty with him and released him.
35 One of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow prophet by the word of the LORD, “Strike me! ” But the man refused to strike him.
36 He told him, “Because you did not listen to the LORD, mark my words: When you leave me, a lion will kill you.” When he left him, a lion attacked and killed him.
37 The prophet found another man and said to him, “Strike me! ” So the man struck him, inflicting a wound. 38 Then the prophet went and waited for the king on the road. He disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes. 39 As the king was passing by, he cried out to the king and said, “Your servant marched out into the middle of the battle. Suddenly, a man turned aside and brought someone to me and said, ‘Guard this man! If he is ever missing, it will be your life in place of his life, or you will weigh out seventy-five pounds B of silver.’ 40 But while your servant was busy here and there, he disappeared.”
The king of Israel said to him, “That will be your sentence; you yourself have decided it.”
41 He quickly removed the bandage from his eyes. The king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets. 42 The prophet said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you released from your hand the man I had set apart for destruction, it will be your life in place of his life and your people in place of his people.’ ” 43 The king of Israel left for home resentful and angry, and he entered Samaria.
20:11 “Don’t let the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.” It is right to learn even from the lips of the wicked, for they are seldom as foolish in worldly things as they are in spiritual. Those who put on the armor are the more apt to be proud because they often mistake their intentions for accomplishments. The text is peculiarly adapted to those who are commencing the battle of the Christian life. The young person who is newly converted is putting on his armor; he has newly made the profession of his faith and has come forward to be baptized and united with the church. Soon he is going back to the warehouse where they will know that he professes to be a Christian. Or he will go home to a family whose other members have no respect for the things of God, and he will have to bear witness among them. The young woman has to go back to her friends who have not the same love of Jesus that she has, to begin her lifelong testimony in their midst. It will do also for young men and women who are beginning life for themselves, lately married, beginning housekeeping, and intending to do well; opening a new shop with good prospects; moving to a new farm with such bright hopes. It may be a word in season to these people. Putting on the armor, we have not taken it off yet, and, therefore, we should not boast. There is a difference, and more than a slight one, between intentions and accomplishments. We do not always perform what we think we will, nor do we always reach where we hope to arrive; failures are as numerous as successes, and even the most successful have failures to mourn over. The gist of all I have said is this: we should trust in God but distrust ourselves.
20:28 “Because the Arameans have said: The LORD is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys, I will hand over all this whole huge army to you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.” Because of this blasphemy of the Syrians, God was pleased to deliver his people Israel. It is not the only time, but one of many, in which the blasphemies of the adversary have worked good for the people of God. We might have supposed that God would have said, “It does not matter what these ignorant heathen say. Who cares for their slanderous falsehoods?” But our God is jealous; he is ever represented in Scripture as being tender of his own glory and, therefore, though Israel was guilty, and Ahab, their king, was detestable, yet God determines that Ahab and Israel will strike Ben-hadad and Syria because of what Syria had said. But as the Syrians fell into a great and blasphemous sin by thinking God was a local God, a God of the hills and not of the valleys, we may fall into much evil by the same thought process. We must beware imitating the Syrians by limiting the Holy One of Israel under any circumstances whatever. For example, the temptation is at times heavy on us to think that the gospel cannot conquer the world, that the truth of Jesus cannot spread in the midst of the thick darkness which surrounds us, that the good old cause is falling into a desperate condition, and that perhaps the victory we have looked for will not come after all. May the Lord increase our faith, and let us never dream that Jehovah, the God of the hills, is not the God of the valleys.
20:40 “While your servant was busy here and there, he disappeared.” This story was originally told in order to touch the conscience of King Ahab, who had allowed Ben-hadad, king of Syria, to escape when providence had put the cruel monarch into his hands that he might receive his doom. Ahab is no more, but this Scripture is not. Like a spent shell, there is truth and power in it. It is a law of discipline in the army that what someone is ordered to do by legitimate authority he must do. So the man’s chief business was to detain his captive till he could hand him over to the officer. We are under a higher obligation still—to serve, honor, and glorify God. Every person is bound to serve his Creator and live to his glory. We would never have existed if it had not been for his power; we would cease to exist at this instant if that power did not sustain us. Surely that existence which was originated by God should be spent to his honor, and the being which hourly depends on him should be used for his glory. For this end the Almighty made us, that we might glorify God and enjoy him forever. When someone fashions a vessel or a tool, it is that it may fulfill the purpose for which he designed it; and if it does not fulfill his purpose, he casts it away. Though people should set us on a column high in the air and say we are heroes, if we have not lived for God, we have lived in vain. As an arrow which falls short of the mark, as a fig tree which yields no figs, as a candle which smokes but yields no light, as a cloud without rain and a well without water is one who has not served the Lord. He has led a wasted life, a life to which the flower and glory of existence are lacking. Call it not life at all, but write it down as animated death.
B 20:6 Lit take all the delight of your eyes
A 20:12 Lit booths, also in v. 16
A 20:33 Some Hb mss, alt Hb tradition, LXX; other Hb mss read they hastened and caught hold; “Is this it? ”
21Some time passed after these events. Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard; it was in Jezreel next to the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. 2 So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard so I can have it for a vegetable garden, since it is right next to my palace. I will give you a better vineyard in its place, or if you prefer, I will give you its value in silver.”
3 But Naboth said to Ahab, “I will never give my fathers’ inheritance to you.”
4 So Ahab went to his palace resentful and angry because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had told him. He had said, “I will not give you my fathers’ inheritance.” He lay down on his bed, turned his face away, and didn’t eat any food.
5 Then his wife Jezebel came to him and said to him, “Why are you so upset that you refuse to eat? ”
6 “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite,” he replied. “I told him: Give me your vineyard for silver, or if you wish, I will give you a vineyard in its place. But he said, ‘I won’t give you my vineyard! ’ ”
7 Then his wife Jezebel said to him, “Now, exercise your royal power over Israel. Get up, eat some food, and be happy. For I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” 8 So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal. She sent the letters to the elders and nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. 9 In the letters, she wrote:
Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people. 10 Then seat two wicked men opposite him and have them testify against him, saying, “You have cursed God and the king! ” Then take him out and stone him to death.
11 The men of his city, the elders and nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them, just as it was written in the letters she had sent them. 12 They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people. 13 The two wicked men came in and sat opposite him. Then the wicked men testified against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed God and the king! ” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. 14 Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.”
15 When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite who refused to give it to you for silver, since Naboth isn’t alive, but dead.” 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.
17 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 18 “Get up and go to meet King Ahab of Israel, who is in Samaria. He’s in Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it. 19 Tell him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Have you murdered and also taken possession? ’ Then tell him, ‘This is what the LORD says: In the place where the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will also lick up your blood! ’ ”
20 Ahab said to Elijah, “So, my enemy, you’ve found me, have you? ”
He replied, “I have found you because you devoted yourself to do what is evil in the LORD’s sight. 21 This is what the LORD says: A ‘I am about to bring disaster on you and will eradicate your descendants:
I will wipe out all of Ahab’s males, B
both slave and free, C in Israel;
22 I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have angered me and caused Israel to sin.’ 23 The LORD also speaks of Jezebel: ‘The dogs will eat Jezebel in the plot of land A at Jezreel:
24Anyone who belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, the dogs will eat,
and anyone who dies in the field, the birds B will eat.’ ”
25 Still, there was no one like Ahab, who devoted himself to do what was evil in the LORD’s sight, because his wife Jezebel incited him. 26 He committed the most detestable acts by following idols as the Amorites had, whom the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites.
27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put sackcloth over his body, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around subdued. 28 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? I will not bring the disaster during his lifetime, because he has humbled himself before me. I will bring the disaster on his house during his son’s lifetime.”
A 21:21 LXX; MT omits This is what the LORD says
B 21:21 Lit eliminate Ahab’s one who urinates against the wall
C 21:21 Or males, even the weak and impaired ; Hb obscure
A 21:23 Some Hb mss, Syr, Tg, Vg, 2Kg 9:36; other Hb mss, LXX read the rampart
22There was a lull of three years without war between Aram and Israel. 2 However, in the third year, King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to visit the king of Israel. 3 The king of Israel had said to his servants, “Don’t you know that Ramoth-gilead is ours, but we’re doing nothing to take it from the king of Aram? ” 4 So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight Ramoth-gilead? ”
Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” 5 But Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “First, please ask what the LORD’s will is.”
6 So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go against Ramoth-gilead for war or should I refrain? ”
They replied, “March up, and the Lord will hand it over to the king.”
7 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the LORD here anymore? Let’s ask him.”
8 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man who can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies good about me, but only disaster. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”
“The king shouldn’t say that! ” Jehoshaphat replied.
9 So the king of Israel called an officer and said, “Hurry and get Micaiah son of Imlah! ”
10 Now the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah, clothed in royal attire, were each sitting on his own throne. They were on the threshing floor at the entrance to the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them. 11 Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made iron horns and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You will gore the Arameans with these until they are finished off.’ ” 12 And all the prophets were prophesying the same: “March up to Ramoth-gilead and succeed, for the LORD will hand it over to the king.”
13 The messenger who went to call Micaiah instructed him, “Look, the words of the prophets are unanimously favorable for the king. So let your words be like theirs, and speak favorably.”
14 But Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, I will say whatever the LORD says to me.”
15 So he went to the king, and the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to Ramoth-gilead for war, or should we refrain? ”
Micaiah told him, “March up and succeed. The LORD will hand it over to the king.”
16 But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear not to tell me anything but the truth in the name of the LORD? ”
17 So Micaiah said:
I saw all Israel scattered on the hills
like sheep without a shepherd.
And the LORD said,
“They have no master;
let everyone return home in peace.”
18 So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you he never prophesies good about me, but only disaster? ”
19 Then Micaiah said, “Therefore, hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and the whole heavenly army was standing by him at his right hand and at his left hand. 20 And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to march up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? ’ So one was saying this and another was saying that.
21 “Then a spirit came forward, stood in the LORD’s presence, and said, ‘I will entice him.’
22 “The LORD asked him, ‘How? ’
“He said, ‘I will go and become a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’
“Then he said, ‘You will certainly entice him and prevail. Go and do that.’
23 “You see, the LORD has put a lying spirit into the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you.”
24 Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah came up, hit Micaiah on the cheek, and demanded, “Did A the Spirit of the LORD leave me to speak to you? ”
25 Micaiah replied, “You will soon see when you go to hide in an inner chamber on that day.”
26 Then the king of Israel ordered, “Take Micaiah and return him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son, 27 and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this guy in prison and feed him only a little bread and water B until I come back safely.’ ”
28 But Micaiah said, “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” Then he said, “Listen, all you people! ” C
29 Then the king of Israel and Judah’s King Jehoshaphat went up to Ramoth-gilead. 30 But the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your royal attire.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
31 Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone at all D except the king of Israel.”
32 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they shouted, “He must be the king of Israel! ” So they turned to fight against him, but Jehoshaphat cried out. 33 When the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
34 But a man drew his bow without taking special aim and struck the king of Israel through the joints of his armor. So he said to his charioteer, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, E for I am badly wounded! ” 35 The battle raged throughout that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. He died that evening, and blood from his wound flowed into the bottom of the chariot. 36 Then the cry rang out in the army as the sun set, declaring:
Each man to his own city,
and each man to his own land!
37 So the king died and was brought to Samaria. They buried the king in Samaria. 38 Then someone washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria. The dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes bathed in it, according to the word of the LORD that he had spoken.
39 The rest of the events of Ahab’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, including the ivory palace he built, and all the cities he built, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. 40 Ahab rested with his fathers, and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.
41 Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king over Judah in the fourth year of Israel’s King Ahab. 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king; he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. 43 He walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them but did what was right in the LORD’s sight. However, the high places were not taken away; A the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 44 Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.
45 The rest of the events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, along with the might he exercised and how he waged war, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. 46 He eradicated from the land the rest of the male cult prostitutes who were left from the days of his father Asa. 47 There was no king in Edom; a deputy served as king. 48 Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they did not go because the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber. 49 At that time, Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships,” but Jehoshaphat was not willing. 50 Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his ancestor David. His son Jehoram became king in his place.
51 Ahaziah son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Judah’s King Jehoshaphat, and he reigned over Israel two years. 52 He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. He walked in the ways of his father, in the ways of his mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. 53 He served Baal and bowed in worship to him. He angered the LORD God of Israel just as his father had done.