<p class="bodytext">During Jehoram&#8217;s<n id="1" /> reign Edom freed themselves from Judah&#8217;s control and set up their own king.<n id="2" />

Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah which all the male and female singers use to mourn Josiah to this very day. It has become customary in Israel to sing these; they are recorded in the Book of Laments.p>

the <sc>Lordsc> appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: &#8220;I have answered<n id="1" /> your prayer and chosen this place to be my temple where sacrifices are to be made.<n id="2" />

My father imposed heavy demands on you; I will make them even heavier.<n id="1" /> My father punished you with ordinary whips; I will punish you with whips that really sting your flesh.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

Then some Levites, from the Kohathites and Korahites, got up and loudly praised the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel.<n id="1" />p>

Zikri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed the king&#8217;s son Maaseiah, Azrikam, the supervisor of the palace, and Elkanah, the king&#8217;s second-in-command.

He did what the <sc>Lordsc> approved,<n id="1" /> but not with wholehearted devotion.<n id="2" />p>

Now an archer shot an arrow at random<n id="1" /> and it struck the king of Israel between the plates of his armor. The king<n id="2" /> ordered his charioteer, &#8220;Turn around and take me from the battle line,<n id="3" /> for I am wounded.&#8221;

He also made the big bronze basin called &#8220;The Sea.&#8221;<n id="1" /> It measured 15 feet<n id="2" /> from rim to rim, was circular in shape, and stood seven and one-half feet<n id="3" /> high. Its circumference was 45 feet.<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;The time will come when your people<n id="1" /> will sin against you (for there is no one who is sinless!) and you will be angry at them and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their land, whether far away or close by.

An edict was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem requiring the people to bring to the <sc>Lordsc> the tax that Moses, God&#8217;s servant, imposed on Israel in the wilderness.<n id="1" />

Solomon acquired his horses from Egypt<n id="1" /> and from Que; the king&#8217;s traders purchased them from Que.

The cherubs&#8217; wings extended over the place where the ark sat; the cherubs overshadowed the ark and its poles.<n id="1" />

He made ornamental chains<n id="1" /> and put them on top of the pillars. He also made one hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments and arranged them within the chains.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb.<n id="1" /> (It was there that<n id="2" /> the <sc>Lordsc> made an agreement with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt.)p>

<p class="bodytext">Jehoram<n id="1" /> received this letter from Elijah the prophet: &#8220;This is what the <sc>Lordsc> God of your ancestor David says: &#8216;You<n id="2" /> have not followed in the footsteps<n id="3" /> of your father Jehoshaphat and of<n id="4" /> King Asa of Judah,

Another third of you will be stationed at the royal palace and still another third at the Foundation Gate. All the others<n id="1" /> will stand in the courtyards of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.

Year after year visitors brought their gifts, which included items of silver, items of gold, clothes, perfume, spices, horses, and mules.<n id="1" />p>

Abijah and his army thoroughly defeated them;<n id="1" /> 500,000 well-trained Israelite men fell dead.<n id="2" />

He commanded them: &#8220;Carry out your duties with respect for the <sc>Lordsc>, with honesty, and with pure motives.<n id="1" />