26 ¶ And to Abiathar the priest said the king, Depart to Anathoth, to thy own fields; for thou art 6 worthy of death: but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou didst bear the ark of the LORD God before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.

27 So Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest to the LORD; that he might fulfill the word of the LORD, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

28 Then tidings came to Joab: form 1 Sam. 2. Joab had turned after Adonijah, though 31, 35. he turned not after Absalom. And Joab

fled to the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

29 And it was told to king Solomon that Joab had fled to the tabernacle of the LORD; and behold, he is by the altar.

Shimei ran away to Achish son of Maachah king of Gath: and they told Shimei, saying, behold, thy servants are in Gath.

40 And Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants: and Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath.

41 And it was told to Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned.

42 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, Did I not make thee to swear by the LORD, and protest to thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest any where abroad, that thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst to me, The word that I have heard is good.

43 Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment

Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him.

27.

30 And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said to him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, No; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answer- 2 Sam. 20. ed me.

31 And the king said to him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father.

32 And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing of it, to wit," Abner the son of Ner captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.

10.

33 Their blood shall therefore return P2 Chr. 1. 1. upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace forever from the LORD.

34 So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

35 ¶ And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the army: and Zadok the priest the king put in the room of Abiathar.

36 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, Build thee a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence to any place whatever.

37 For it shall be, that on the day thou shalt go out, and pass over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that: thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thy own head.

38 And Shimei said to the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days..

39 And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants of

a c. 7. 8.

1 or, bounty.

44 The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thy heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father: therefore the LORD will return thy wickedness upon thy own head;

45 And king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever.

46 So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; who went out, and fell upon him, that he died. And the P kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

CHAP. III.

1 Solomon marrieth Pharaoh's daughter. 2 High places being in use, Solomon sacrificeth at Gibeon. 5 Solomon at Gibeon, in the choice which God gave him, preferring wis dom, obtaineth wisdom, riches, and honor. 16 Solomon's judgment between the two har

lots maketh him renowned.

ND a Solomon made affinity with A Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house; and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem on every side.

2 Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built to the name of the LORD, until those days.

3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.

4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.

5 In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.

6 And Solomon said, Thou hast shown to thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

7 And now, O LORD my God, thou

2 Heb. bearing.

3 Heb. many days.

11 And God said to him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself 3 long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thy enemies: but hast asked for thy- to hear. self understanding 4 to discern judgment;

12 Behold, I have done according to

4 Heb.

26 Then spoke the woman whose the living child was to the king, for her bowels 6 yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

27 Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother of it.

28 And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was 7 in him, to do

C

5 or, hath not been.

13 And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honor: so that there s shall not be a c. 15. 5. any among the kings like to thee all thy days,

14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as a thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.

6 Heb. were hot.

15 And Solomon awoke; and behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered_up burnt-offerings, and offered peace-offerings, and made a feast to all his servants. 16 Then came there two women, of him. that were harlots, to the king, and stood before him.

17 And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

7 Heb. in the midst

1 or,

the chief officer.

2 or, sec.

retaries.

18 And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were togeth-3 or, remem er; there was no stranger with us in the house, save us two in the house.

19 And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it.

brancer.

a c. 5. 14.

4 or, levy.

20 And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thy s or, handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, Benhur. and laid her dead child in my bosom.

21 And when I rose in the morning to 6 or, nurse my child, behold, it was dead: but Ben-dekar. when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I bore.

22 And the other woman said, No; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king.

23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead; and the other saith, No;|

2 And these were the princes which he had; Azariah the son of Zadok 1 the priest,

3 Elihoreph and Ahiah, the sons of Shisha, 2 scribes; Jehosaphat the son of Ahilud, the 3 recorder.

4 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests:

5 And Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers: and Zabud the son of Nathan was principal officer, and the the king's friend:

6 And Ahishar was over the household: and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the 4 tribute.

7 ¶ And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided victuals for the king and his household: each man his month in a year made provision.

8 And these are their names: 5 The son of Hur, in mount Ephraim:

96 The son of Dekar, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan:

107 The son of Hesed, in Aruboth; to him pertained Sochoh, and all the land of Hepher:

11 The son of Abinadab, in all the region of Dor; who had Taphath the daughter of Solomon for a wife:

12 Baana the son of Ahilud; to him pertained Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, even to the place that is beyond Jokneam:

13 The son of Geber, in Ramoth-gilead; to him pertained the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; to him also pertained the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and brazen bars:

14 And he sent them to Lebanon ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home. And & Adoniram was over the levy.

15 And Solomon had seventy thousand that bore burdens, and eighty thousand hewers in the mountains;

16 Besides the chief of Solomon's officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who ruled over the people that wrought in the work. 17 And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.

18 And Solomon's builders, and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the 7 stone-squarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.

CHAP. VI.

3

to.

Heb. floors.

5 Heb. ribs.

1 The building of Solomon's temple. 5 Its chambers. 11 God's promise to it. 15 The ceiling and adorning of it. 23 The cheru. bim. 31 The doors. 36 The court. 37 The 6 Heb. nartime of building of it.

a

rowings,

14 So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

15 And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, 9 both the floor of the house, and the walls of the ceiling: and he covered them on the inside with wood, and covered the floor of the house with planks of fir.

.16 And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.

17 And the house, that is, the temple

dred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Zif, which is the second month, that he i began to build the house of the LORD. 2 And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length of it was sixty cubits, and the breadth of it twenty cubits, and the hight of it thirty cubits.

3 And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length of it, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth of it, before the house.

4 And for the house he made 2 windows of narrow lights. 5 And 3 against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made schambers round about:

ment. 7 Heb. shoulder.

6 The nethermost chamber was five gourds. cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round ahont, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.

11 Heb. openings of flowers.

12 Heb. shut up.

7 And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool 13 or, oily. of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

8 The door for the middle chamber 14 Heb. was in the right 7 side of the house: and trees of oil. they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the mid-Ex. 25. 20. dle into the third;

9 So he built the house and finished it; 15 or, the and covered the house 8 with beams and cherubim boards of cedar. stretched forth their

10 And then he built chambers against wings. all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

18 And the cedar of the house within was carved with 10 knobs and 11 open flowers: all was cedar; there was no

stone seen.

19 And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

20 And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the hight of it, and he overlaid it with 12 pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.

21 So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold. 22 And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.

23 T And within the oracle he made two cherubim of 13 14 olive tree, each ten cubits high.

24 And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing to the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.

25 And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubim were of one measure and one size.

26 The hight of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub.

27 And he set the cherubim within the inner house: and 15 they stretched forth the wings of the cherubim, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.

28 And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.

29 And he carved all the walls of the house around with carved figures of