He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations ²  whom the Lord drove out ahead of the Israelites.

He built altars in the Lord’s temple, about which the Lord had said, “Jerusalem will be my permanent home.” ¹ 

Solomon and the entire assembly went to the worship center ¹  in Gibeon, for the tent where they met God ²  was located there, which Moses the Lord’s servant had made in the wilderness.

you are granted wisdom and discernment. ¹  Furthermore I am giving you riches, wealth, and honor surpassing that of any king before or after you.” ² 

“Now send me a man who is skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as purple, crimson, and violet colored fabrics, and who knows how to engrave. He will work with my skilled craftsmen here in Jerusalem ¹  and Judah, whom my father David provided.

Solomon took a census ¹  of all the male resident foreigners in the land of Israel, after the census his father David had taken. There were 153,600 in all.

Solomon began building the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem ¹  on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David prepared at the threshing floor of Ornan ²  the Jebusite.

Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live. ¹  May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place. ² 

then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly ¹  you will then teach them the right way to live ²  and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess. ³ 

When all your people Israel pray and ask for help, ¹  as they acknowledge their intense pain ²  and spread out their hands toward this temple,

then I will remove you ¹  from my land I have given you, ²  I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, ³  and I will make you ⁴  an object of mockery and ridicule ⁵  among all the nations.

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

and built up Baalath, all the storage cities that belonged to him, ¹  and all the cities where chariots and horses were kept. ²  He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, ³  Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom. ⁴ 

Solomon moved Pharaoh’s daughter up from the City of David ¹  to the palace he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the palace of King David of Israel, for the places where the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”

I did not believe these things until I came and saw them with my own eyes. Indeed, I didn’t hear even half the story! ¹  Your wisdom surpasses what was reported to me.

King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she requested, more than what she had brought him. ¹  Then she left and returned ²  to her homeland with her attendants.

He asked them, “How do you advise me to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?” ¹ 

The young advisers with whom Rehoboam ¹  had grown up said to him, “Say this to these people who have said to you, ‘Your father made us work hard, but now lighten our burden’ ²  – say this to them: ‘I am a lot harsher than my father! ³ 

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged. ¹  He removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had seized in the Ephraimite hill country. He repaired the altar of the Lord in front of the porch of the Lord’s temple. ² 

He was buried in the tomb he had carved out in the City of David. ¹  They laid him to rest on a bier covered with spices and assorted mixtures of ointments. They made a huge bonfire to honor him. ²