Then Absalom happened to come across David’s men. Now as Absalom was riding on his ¹  mule, it ²  went under the branches of a large oak tree. His head got caught in the oak and he was suspended in midair, ³  while the mule he had been riding kept going.

So Joab visited ¹  the king at his home. He said, “Today you have embarrassed all your servants who have saved your life this day, as well as the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your concubines.

So the king got up and sat at the city gate. When all the people were informed that the king was sitting at the city gate, they ¹  all came before him.But the Israelite soldiers ²  had all fled to their own homes. ³ 

Then David went to his palace ¹  in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. ²  Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. ³  They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

When Benaiah arrived at the tent of the Lord, he said to him, “The king says, ‘Come out!’” But he replied, “No, I will die here!” So Benaiah sent word to the king and reported Joab’s reply. ¹ 

When King Solomon finished constructing the Lord’s temple, he ¹  put the holy items that belonged to his father David (the silver, gold, and other articles) in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple.

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he summoned 180,000 skilled warriors from all of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin ¹  to attack Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

So he got up and went to Zarephath. When he went through the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. He called out to her, “Please give me a cup ¹  of water, so I can take a drink.”

while he went a day’s journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub ¹  and asked the Lord to take his life: ²  “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors.” ³ 

The remaining 27,000 ran to Aphek and went into the city, but the wall fell on them. ¹  Now Ben Hadad ran into the city and hid in an inner room. ² 

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.

The king ¹  sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers. This third captain went up and fell ²  on his knees before Elijah. He begged for mercy, “Prophet, please have respect for my life and for the lives of these fifty servants of yours.

Someone went out to the field to gather some herbs and found a wild vine. ¹  He picked some of its fruit, ²  enough to fill up the fold of his robe. He came back, cut it up, and threw the slices ³  into the stew pot, not knowing they were harmful. ⁴ 

He brought the letter to king of Israel. It read: “This is a letter of introduction for my servant Naaman, ¹  whom I have sent to be cured of his skin disease.”

He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman ¹  came and stood before him. He said, “For sure ²  I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.”

So Hazael went to visit Elisha. ¹  He took along a gift, ²  as well as ³  forty camel loads of all the fine things of Damascus. When he arrived, he stood before him and said, “Your son, ⁴  King Ben Hadad of Syria, has sent me to you with this question, ⁵  ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

So Jehu ¹  got up and went inside. Then the prophet ²  poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have designated you as king over the Lord’s people Israel.

So he sent a second horseman out to them ¹  and he said, “This is what the king says, ‘Is everything all right?’” ²  Jehu replied, “None of your business! Follow me.”

Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went to the temple of Baal. Jehu ¹  said to the servants of Baal, “Make sure there are no servants of the Lord here with you; there must be only servants of Baal.” ² 

In the seventh year Jehoiada summoned ¹  the officers of the units of hundreds of the Carians ²  and the royal bodyguard. ³  He met with them ⁴  in the Lord’s temple. He made an agreement ⁵  with them and made them swear an oath of allegiance in the Lord’s temple. Then he showed them the king’s son.