But now at this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you and they will search through your palace and your servants&#8217; houses. They will carry away all your valuables.&#8221;<n id="1" />

The king of Israel summoned all the leaders<n id="1" /> of the land and said, &#8220;Notice how this man is looking for trouble.<n id="2" /> Indeed, he demanded my wives, sons, silver, and gold, and I did not resist him.&#8221;

So he said to the messengers of Ben Hadad, &#8220;Say this to my master, the king, &#8216;I will give you everything you demanded at first from your servant, but I am unable to agree to this latest demand.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" /> So the messengers went back and gave their report.p>

<p class="bodytext">Ben Hadad sent another message to him, &#8220;May the gods judge me severely<n id="1" /> if there is enough dirt left in Samaria for my soldiers to scoop up in their hands.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now a prophet visited King Ahab of Israel and said, &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;Do you see this huge army?<n id="1" /> Look, I am going to hand it over to you this very day. Then you will know that I am the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8217;&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Now the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were sitting on their respective thrones,<n id="1" /> dressed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria.<n id="2" /> All the prophets were prophesying before them.

Micaiah<n id="1" /> said, &#8220;I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd. Then the <sc>Lordsc> said, &#8216;They have no master. They should go home in peace.&#8217;&#8221;

He replied, &#8216;I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.&#8217; The <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> said, &#8216;Deceive and overpower him.<n id="2" /> Go out and do as you have proposed.&#8217;

He followed in his father Asa&#8217;s footsteps and was careful to do what the <sc>Lordsc> approved.<n id="1" /> <v id="(22:44)" /><n id="2" /> However, the high places were not eliminated; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places.

<p class="bodytext">The king then told Abiathar the priest, &#8220;Go back to your property<n id="1" /> in Anathoth. You deserve to die,<n id="2" /> but today I will not kill you because you did carry the ark of the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> before my father David and you suffered with my father through all his difficult times.&#8221;<n id="3" />

You must obey<n id="1" /> all I command you to do, follow my instructions,<n id="2" /> do what I approve,<n id="3" /> and keep my rules and commandments, like my servant David did. Then I will be with you and establish for you a lasting dynasty, as I did for David;<n id="4" /> I will give you Israel.

<p class="bodytext">When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king, &#8220;We have no portion in David, no share in the son of Jesse!<n id="1" /> Return to your homes, O Israel!<n id="2" /> Now, look after your own dynasty, O David!&#8221;<n id="3" /> So Israel returned to their homes.<n id="4" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now Rehoboam son of Solomon ruled in Judah. He<n id="1" /> was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> the city the <sc>Lordsc> chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home.<n id="3" /> His mother was an Ammonite woman<n id="4" /> named Naamah.p>

Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple and of the royal palace and handed it to his servants. He then told them to deliver it<n id="1" /> to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

The prophet<n id="1" /> visited the king of Israel and said, &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says: &#8216;Because the Syrians said, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys,&#8221; I will hand over to you this entire huge army.<n id="2" /> Then you will know that I am the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8217;&#8221;p>