David said, “My son Solomon is just an inexperienced young man, ¹  and the temple to be built for the Lord must be especially magnificent so it will become famous and be considered splendid by all the nations. ²  Therefore I will make preparations for its construction.” So David made extensive preparations before he died.

The Lord greatly magnified Solomon before all Israel and bestowed on him greater majesty than any king of Israel before him. ¹ 

The young advisers with whom Rehoboam ¹  had grown up said to him, “Say this to these people who have said to you, ‘Your father made us work hard, but now lighten our burden’ ²  – say this to them: ‘I am a lot harsher than my father! ³ 

Some time later ¹  King Ahasuerus promoted ²  Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, exalting him and setting his position ³  above that of all the officials who were with him.

Haman then recounted to them his fabulous wealth, ¹  his many sons, ²  and how the king had magnified him and exalted him over the king’s other officials and servants.

Now all the actions carried out under his authority and his great achievements, along with an exact statement concerning the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king promoted, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia?

I thought to myself, ¹  “I have become much wiser ²  than any of my predecessors who ruled ³  over Jerusalem; ⁴  I ⁵  have acquired much wisdom and knowledge.” ⁶ 

Then you will think to yourself, ¹  ‘Who bore these children for me? I was bereaved and barren, dismissed and divorced. ²  Who raised these children? Look, I was left all alone; where did these children come from?’”

“Then the king ¹  will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every deity and he will utter presumptuous things against the God of gods. He will succeed until the time of ²  wrath is completed, for what has been decreed must occur. ³ 

I will remove the one from the north ¹  far from you. I will drive him out to a dry and desolate place. Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea, ²  and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea. ³  His stench will rise up as a foul smell.” ⁴  Indeed, the Lord ⁵  has accomplished great things.

He wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are really on my side and are willing to obey me, ¹  then take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel at this time tomorrow.” ²  Now the king had seventy sons, and the prominent ³  men of the city were raising them.