I grieve over you, my brother Jonathan! You were very dear to me. Your love was more special to me than the love of women.

Now the battle was very severe that day; Abner and the men of Israel were overcome by David’s soldiers. ¹ 

When Ish-bosheth ¹  the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he was very disheartened, ²  and all Israel was afraid.

David was angry because the Lord attacked ¹  Uzzah; so he called that place Perez Uzzah, ²  which remains its name to this very day.

Then David became very angry at this man. He said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ¹ 

Then Nathan went to his home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and the child became very ill. ¹ 

Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very crafty man.

Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me pick out twelve thousand men. Then I will go and pursue David this very night.

You are my brothers – my very own flesh and blood! ¹  Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back?’

The young woman was very beautiful; she became the king’s nurse and served him, but the king did not have sexual relations with her. ¹ 

(Now his father had never corrected ¹  him ²  by saying, “Why do you do such things?” He was also very handsome and had been born right after Absalom. ³ )

So Bathsheba visited the king in his private quarters. ¹  (The king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was serving the king.)

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment; the breadth of his understanding ¹  was as infinite as the sand on the seashore.

(Hiram’s fleet, which carried gold from Ophir, also brought from Ophir a very large quantity of fine timber and precious gems.

and had warned him about this very thing, so that he would not follow other gods. ¹  But he did not obey ²  the Lord’s command.

She said to her husband, “Look, I’m sure ¹  that the man who regularly passes through here is a very special prophet. ² 

So Edom has remained free from Judah’s control to this very day. ¹  At that same time Libnah also rebelled.

They demolished ¹  the sacred pillar of Baal and ²  the temple of Baal; it is used as ³  a latrine ⁴  to this very day.

He defeated ¹  10,000 Edomites in the Salt Valley; he captured Sela in battle and renamed it Joktheel, a name it has retained to this very day.

(At that time King Rezin of Syria ¹  recovered Elat for Syria; he drove the Judahites from there. ²  Syrians ³  arrived in Elat and live there to this very day.)