If I had acted at risk of my own life ¹  – and nothing is hidden from the king! – you would have abandoned me.” ² 

So all the men of Israel deserted ¹  David and followed Sheba son of Bicri. But the men of Judah stuck by their king all the way from the Jordan River ²  to Jerusalem. ³ 

Once he had removed Amasa ¹  from the path, everyone followed Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bicri.

a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen up! Listen up! Tell Joab, ‘Come near so that I may speak to you.’”

So the Lord sent a plague through Israel from the morning until the completion of the appointed time. Seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beer Sheba.

He built a wall 30 feet in from the rear of the temple as a partition for an inner sanctuary that would be the most holy place. ¹  He paneled the wall with cedar planks from the floor to the rafters. ² 

The poles were so long their ends were visible from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point. ¹  They have remained there to this very day.

Now several non-Israelite peoples were left in the land after the conquest of Joshua, including the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ¹ 

Solomon answered all her questions; there was no question too complex for the king. ¹ 

Jeroboam son of Nebat, one of Solomon’s servants, rebelled against ¹  the king. He was an Ephraimite ²  from Zeredah whose mother was a widow named Zeruah.

The altar split open and the ashes ¹  fell from the altar to the ground, ²  in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had announced with the Lord’s authority. ³ 

Elijah took the boy, brought him down from the upper room to the house, and handed him to his mother. Elijah then said, “See, your son is alive!”

Indeed, ¹  fire came down from the sky and consumed the two captains who came before me, along with their men. ²  So now, please have respect for my life.”

When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. ¹  Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.

He said, “Go and ask all your neighbors for empty containers. ¹  Get as many as you can. ² 

She called to her husband, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can go see the prophet quickly and then return.”

He conquered all the land of Gilead, including the territory of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, extending all the way from the Aroer in the Arnon Valley through Gilead to Bashan. ¹ 

He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Jehoaddan, who was from Jerusalem.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord; he did not repudiate ²  the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin.

But they did not obey, ¹  and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.