Around the great courtyard were three rows of chiseled stones and one row of cedar beams, like the inner courtyard of the Lord’s temple and the hall of the palace.

Solomon also made all these items for the Lord’s temple: the gold altar, the gold table on which was kept the Bread of the Presence,

The priests and Levites carried the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, and all the holy items in the tent.

The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its assigned place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubs.

He said, “The Lord God of Israel is worthy of praise because he has fulfilled what he promised my father David.

The Lord told my father David, ‘It is right for you to have a strong desire to build a temple to honor me.

and set up in it a place for the ark containing the covenant the Lord made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

But respond favorably to your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer the desperate prayer your servant is presenting to you today.

After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the other construction projects he had planned,

After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and the royal palace,

the food in his banquet hall, his servants and attendants, their robes, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he presented in the Lord’s temple, she was amazed.

and had warned him about this very thing, so that he would not follow other gods. But he did not obey the Lord’s command.

Just then a prophet from Judah, sent by the Lord, arrived in Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing near the altar ready to offer a sacrifice.

That day he also announced a sign, “This is the sign the Lord has predetermined: The altar will be split open and the ashes on it will fall to the ground.”

The altar split open and the ashes fell from the altar to the ground, in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had announced with the Lord’s authority.

For the Lord gave me strict orders, ‘Do not eat or drink there and do not go home the way you came.’”

Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: “I raised you up from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel.

Dogs will eat the members of your family who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”’ Indeed, the Lord has announced it!

The Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will cut off Jeroboam’s dynasty. It is ready to happen!

All Israel buried him and mourned for him, just as the Lord had predicted through his servant the prophet Ahijah.