When the king heard what the prophet<n id="1" /> cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam, standing at the altar, extended his hand<n id="2" /> and ordered,<n id="3" /> &#8220;Seize him!&#8221; The hand he had extended shriveled up<n id="4" /> and he could not pull it back.

He got up on the bed and spread his body out over<n id="1" /> the boy; he put his mouth on the boy&#8217;s<n id="2" /> mouth, his eyes over the boy&#8217;s eyes, and the palms of his hands against the boy&#8217;s palms. He bent down over him, and the boy&#8217;s skin<n id="3" /> grew warm.

Elisha<n id="1" /> went back and walked around in the house.<n id="2" /> Then he got up on the bed again<n id="3" /> and bent down over him. The child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Jehu ordered<n id="1" /> his officer Bidkar, &#8220;Pick him up and throw him into the part of the field that once belonged to Naboth of Jezreel. Remember, you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab, when the <sc>Lordsc> pronounced this judgment on him,

The prophet<n id="1" /> got angry at him and said, &#8220;If you had struck the ground five or six times, you would have annihilated Syria!<n id="2" /> But now, you will defeat Syria only three times.&#8221;p>

His officer Pekah son of Remaliah conspired against him. He and fifty Gileadites assassinated Pekahiah, as well as Argob and Arieh, in Samaria in the fortress of the royal palace.<n id="1" /> Pekah then took his place as king.p>

Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet<n id="1" /> high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet<n id="2" /> high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.p>

The <sc>Lordsc> greatly magnified Solomon before all Israel and bestowed on him greater majesty than any king of Israel before him.<n id="1" />p>

Solomon had made a bronze platform and had placed it in the middle of the enclosure. It was seven and one-half feet<n id="1" /> long, seven and one-half feet<n id="2" /> wide, and four and one-half feet<n id="3" /> high. He stood on it and then got down on his knees in front of the entire assembly of Israel. He spread out his hands toward the sky,

Lawless good-for-nothing men<n id="1" /> gathered around him and conspired<n id="2" /> against Rehoboam son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was an inexperienced young man<n id="3" /> and could not resist them.

<p class="bodytext">He assembled all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the settlers<n id="1" /> from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had come to live with them. Many people from Israel had come there to live<n id="2" /> when they saw that the <sc>Lordsc> his God was with him.

When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, &#8220;He must be the king of Israel!&#8221; So they turned and attacked him, but Jehoshaphat cried out. The <sc>Lordsc> helped him; God lured them away from him.

Then in the midst of the assembly, the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s Spirit came upon Jachaziel son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph.

<p class="bodytext">At the beginning<n id="1" /> of the year the Syrian army attacked<n id="2" /> Joash<n id="3" /> and invaded Judah and Jerusalem. They wiped out all the leaders of the people and sent all the plunder they gathered to the king of Damascus.

When they withdrew, they left Joash<n id="1" /> badly wounded. His servants plotted against him because of what he had done to<n id="2" /> the son<n id="3" /> of Jehoiada the priest. They murdered him on his bed. Thus<n id="4" /> he died and was buried in the City of David,<n id="5" /> but not in the tombs of the kings.

He wrote letters mocking the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel and insulting him with these words:<n id="1" /> &#8220;The gods of the surrounding nations could not rescue their people from my power. Neither can Hezekiah&#8217;s god rescue his people from my power.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">The rest of the events of Jehoiakim&#8217;s reign, including the horrible sins he committed and his shortcomings, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Israel and Judah.<n id="1" /> His son Jehoiachin replaced him as king.p>

Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak<n id="1" /> and his priestly colleagues<n id="2" /> and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his colleagues<n id="3" /> started to build<n id="4" /> the altar of the God of Israel so they could offer burnt offerings on it as required by<n id="5" /> the law of Moses the man of God.

This Ezra is the one who came up from Babylon. He was a scribe who was skilled in the law of Moses which the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel had given. The king supplied him with everything he requested, for the hand of the <sc>Lordsc> his God was on him.

<p class="bodytext">Haman&#8217;s<n id="1" /> wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, &#8220;Have a gallows seventy-five feet<n id="2" /> high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="bodytext">It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.p>