He tore down the quarters of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines for Asherah.

Yet the Lord’s great anger against Judah did not subside; he was still infuriated by all the things Manasseh had done.

The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers and basins.

Johanan was the father of Azariah, who served as a priest in the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem.

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.

I will become his father and he will become my son. I will never withhold my loyal love from him, as I withheld it from the one who ruled before you.

So now, O Lord, may the promise you made about your servant and his family become a permanent reality! Do as you promised,

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.

You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations.

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.

Don’t be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their ancestors, provoking him to destroy them, as you can see.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, just like his father Manasseh had done. He offered sacrifices to all the idols his father Manasseh had made, and worshiped them.

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!

So it happened that the Jews who were living near them came and warned us repeatedly about all the schemes they were plotting against us.