Hiram then sent this message to Solomon: “I received ¹  the message you sent to me. I will give you all the cedars and evergreens you need. ² 

and followed ¹  the advice of the younger ones. He said, “My father imposed heavy demands on you; I will make them even heavier. ²  My father punished you with ordinary whips; I will punish you with whips that really sting your flesh.” ³ 

Now the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the prophets are in complete agreement that the king will succeed. ¹  Your words must agree with theirs; you must predict success.” ² 

He asked them, “How do you advise me ¹  to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?” ² 

For the Lord gave me strict orders, ¹  ‘Do not eat or drink ²  there and do not go home the way you came.’”

Now the king of Syria had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight common soldiers or high-ranking officers; ¹  fight only the king of Israel.”

He told his sons, “Saddle my donkey,” and they did so. ¹ 

This is what she wrote: ¹  “Observe a time of fasting and seat Naboth in front of the people.

She said, “I would like to ask you for just one small favor. ¹  Please don’t refuse me.” ²  He said, ³  “Go ahead and ask, my mother, for I would not refuse you.”

for the prophecy he announced with the Lord’s authority ¹  against the altar in Bethel ²  and against all the temples on the high places in the cities of the north ³  will certainly be fulfilled.”

For today he has gone down and sacrificed many cattle, steers, and sheep and has invited all the king’s sons, the army commanders, and Abiathar the priest. At this moment ¹  they are having a feast ²  in his presence, and they have declared, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ ³ 

Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace and handed it to his servants. He then told them to deliver it ¹  to Ben Hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, ruler in Damascus, along with this message:

The seventh time the servant ¹  said, “Look, a small cloud, the size of the palm of a man’s hand, is rising up from the sea.” Elijah ²  then said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up the chariots and go down, so that the rain won’t overtake you.’” ³ 

“Note well, you still have to contend with Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, ¹  who tried to call down upon me a horrible judgment when I went to Mahanaim. ²  He came down and met me at the Jordan, and I solemnly promised ³  him by the Lord, ‘I will not strike you down ⁴  with the sword.’

But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Look, Jeroboam’s wife is coming to find out from you what will happen to her son, for he is sick. Tell her so-and-so. ¹  When she comes, she will be in a disguise.”

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

King Rehoboam consulted with the older advisers who had served ¹  his father Solomon when he had been alive. He asked them, ²  “How do you advise me to answer these people?”

The king swore an oath: “As certainly as the Lord lives (he who has rescued me ¹  from every danger),

Then a spirit ¹  stepped forward and stood before the Lord. He said, ‘I will deceive him.’ The Lord asked him, ‘How?’

and the Lord will fulfill his promise to me, ¹  ‘If your descendants watch their step ²  and live faithfully in my presence ³  with all their heart and being, ⁴  then,’ he promised, ⁵  ‘you will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ ⁶