Now David had been thinking, ¹  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil.

But the king said, “Let him go over ¹  to his own house. He may not see my face.” So Absalom went over ²  to his own house; he did not see the king’s face.

The messengers came again and said, “This is what Ben Hadad says, ‘I sent this message to you, “You must give me your silver, gold, wives, and sons.”

Now Gehazi went on ahead of them. He placed the staff on the child’s face, but there was no sound or response. When he came back to Elisha ¹  he told him, “The child did not wake up.”

He left Elisha and went to his master. Ben Hadad ¹  asked him, “What did Elisha tell you?” Hazael ²  replied, “He told me you would surely recover.”

In Jerusalem Jehoshaphat appointed some Levites, priests, and Israelite family leaders to judge on behalf of the Lord ¹  and to settle disputes among the residents of Jerusalem. ² 

When Amaziah returned from defeating the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people ¹  of Seir and made them his personal gods. ²  He bowed down before them and offered them sacrifices.

Everyone who held the words of the God of Israel in awe ¹  gathered around me because of the unfaithful acts of the people of the exile. ²  Devastated, I continued to sit there until the evening offering.

During all this time I was not in Jerusalem, ¹  for in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon, I had gone back to the king. After some time ²  I had requested leave of the king,

The leading men of the cities send their servants for water. They go to the cisterns, ¹  but they do not find any water there. They return with their containers ²  empty. Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. ³ 

‘Rather, I will sweep them away in a storm into all the nations they are not familiar with.’ Thus the land had become desolate because of them, with no one crossing through or returning, for they had made the fruitful ¹  land a waste.”

The Lord says, ‘I have returned to Zion and will live within Jerusalem. ¹  Now Jerusalem will be called “truthful city,” “mountain of the Lord who rules over all,” “holy mountain.”’

But Moses was furious with the officers of the army, the commanders over thousands and commanders over hundreds, who had come from service in the war.

So Joshua made sure they marched the ark of the Lord around the city one time. ¹  Then they went back to the camp and spent the night there. ² 

God also repaid the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. The curse spoken by Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell ¹  on them.

Now I dedicate him to the Lord. From this time on he is dedicated to the Lord.” Then they ¹  worshiped the Lord there.

Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah. But the boy was serving the Lord under the supervision of ¹  Eli the priest.

Mephibosheth said to the king, “Let him have ¹  the whole thing! My lord the king has returned safely ²  to his house!”

Jeroboam and all the people reported ¹  to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered when he said, “Return to me on the third day.”

Whenever the king visited the Lord’s temple, the royal guard carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom.