Others will then answer, ¹  ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who led their ancestors ²  out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. ³  That is why the Lord has brought all this disaster down on them.’”

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month (a date he had arbitrarily chosen) ¹  Jeroboam ²  offered sacrifices on the altar he had made in Bethel. ³  He inaugurated a festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to offer sacrifices.

In the thirty-eighth year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Omri’s son Ahab became king over Israel. Ahab son of Omri ruled over Israel for twenty-two years in Samaria. ¹ 

Let them bring us two bulls. Let them choose one of the bulls for themselves, cut it up into pieces, and place it on the wood. But they must not set it on fire. I will do the same to the other bull and place it on the wood. But I will not set it on fire.

He arranged the wood, cut up the bull, and placed it on the wood.

So Ahab went into his palace, bitter and angry that Naboth the Jezreelite had said, ¹  “I will not sell to you my ancestral inheritance.” ²  He lay down on his bed, pouted, ³  and would not eat.

She replied to him, “My master, you swore an oath to your servant by the Lord your God, ‘Solomon your son will be king after me and he will sit on my throne.’

Now, ¹  my master, O king, all Israel is watching anxiously to see who is named to succeed my master the king on the throne. ² 

The king was told, “Nathan the prophet is here.” Nathan entered and bowed before the king with his face to the floor. ¹ 

Nathan said, “My master, O king, did you announce, ‘Adonijah will be king after me; he will sit on my throne’?

There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet will anoint ¹  him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet and declare, ‘Long live King Solomon!’

and said ¹  this: ‘The Lord God of Israel is worthy of praise because ²  today he has placed a successor on my throne and allowed me to see it.’” ³ 

David reigned over Israel forty years; he reigned in Hebron seven years, and in Jerusalem ¹  thirty-three years.

Solomon dismissed Abiathar from his position as priest of the Lord, ¹  fulfilling the decree of judgment the Lord made in Shiloh against the family of Eli. ² 

The king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada to take his place at the head of ¹  the army, and the king appointed Zadok the priest to take Abiathar’s place. ² 

The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for it had the most prominent of the high places. ¹  Solomon would offer up ²  a thousand burnt sacrifices on the altar there.

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment; the breadth of his understanding ¹  was as infinite as the sand on the seashore.

He sent them to Lebanon in shifts of 10,000 men per month. They worked in Lebanon for one month, and then spent two months at home. Adoniram was supervisor of ¹  the work crews.

besides 3,300 ¹  officials who supervised the workers. ² 

He built an extension all around the walls of the temple’s main hall and holy place and constructed side rooms in it. ¹