So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord and did not obey the Lord’s instructions; he even tried to conjure up underworld spirits.

I was with you wherever you went and I defeated all your enemies before you. Now I will make you as famous as the great men of the earth.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb. (It was there that the Lord made an agreement with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt.)

and set up in it a place for the ark containing the covenant the Lord made with the Israelites.”

You have kept your word to your servant, my father David; this very day you have fulfilled what you promised.

Then they will honor you by obeying you throughout their lifetimes as they live on the land you gave to our ancestors.

Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews and they continue in that role to this very day.

But Rehoboam rejected their advice and consulted the young advisers who served him, with whom he had grown up.

Jehoiada the priest gave to the officers of the units of hundreds King David’s spears and shields that were kept in God’s temple.

Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!

They discovered written in the law that the LORD had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month,

When these things had been accomplished and the rage of King Ahasuerus had diminished, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decided against her.

let them bring royal attire which the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden – one bearing the royal insignia!

He is like a tree planted by flowing streams; it yields its fruit at the proper time, and its leaves never fall off. He succeeds in everything he attempts.

Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not pray to you!

Also, do not pay attention to everything that people say; otherwise, you might even hear your servant cursing you.

Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, the place where you will eventually go.

At that time the Lord will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria.

Were the nations whom my predecessors destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods?

Isaiah replied, “This is your sign from the Lord confirming that the Lord will do what he has said: