The king replied, “Kimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him whatever I deem appropriate. And whatever you choose, I will do for you.”

When he approached her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” He replied, “I am.” She said to him, “Listen to the words of your servant.” He said, “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

let seven of his male descendants be turned over to us, and we will execute ¹  them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, who was the Lord’s chosen one.” ²  The king replied, “I will turn them over.”

Now Adonijah, son of David and Haggith, ¹  was promoting himself, ²  boasting, ³  “I will be king!” He managed to acquire ⁴  chariots and horsemen, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard. ⁵ 

One of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was with me in the house.

and took off after the prophet, ¹  whom he found sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the prophet ²  from Judah?” He answered, “Yes, I am.”

Then he called out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, are you also bringing disaster on this widow I am staying with by killing her son?”

Elijah said to them: ¹  “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but there are 450 prophets of Baal.

The king said to him, “How many times must I make you solemnly promise in ¹  the name of the Lord to tell me only the truth?”

I will become his father and he will become my son. I will never withhold my loyal love from him, as I withheld it from the one who ruled before you. ¹ 

David went in, sat before the Lord, and said: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, ¹  that you should have brought me to this point?

“Go, tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am offering you three forms of judgment from which to choose. Pick one of them.”’” ¹ 

David said to Solomon: “My son, I really wanted ¹  to build a temple to honor ²  the Lord my God.

He will build a temple to honor me; ¹  he will become my son, and I will become his father. I will grant to his dynasty permanent rule over Israel.’ ² 

He said to me, ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my temple and my courts, for I have chosen him to become my son and I will become his father.

“But who am I and who are my people, that we should be in a position to contribute this much? ¹  Indeed, everything comes from you, and we have simply given back to you what is yours. ² 

The king said to him, “How many times must I make you solemnly promise in ¹  the name of the Lord to tell me only the truth?”

Are you not aware of what I and my predecessors ¹  have done to all the nations of the surrounding lands? Have the gods of the surrounding lands actually been able to rescue their lands from my power? ² 

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.

¹ These are the words of Nehemiah ²  son of Hacaliah: It so happened that in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, ³  I was in Susa ⁴  the citadel.