1 Raja-raja 2:3

2:3 Do the job the Lord your God has assigned you ¹  by following his instructions ²  and obeying ³  his rules, commandments, regulations, and laws as written in the law of Moses. Then you will succeed in all you do and seek to accomplish, ⁴ 

1 Raja-raja 2:7

2:7 “Treat fairly ⁵  the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and provide for their needs, ⁶  because they helped me ⁷  when I had to flee from your brother Absalom.

1 Raja-raja 2:31

2:31 The king told him, “Do as he said! Strike him down and bury him. Take away from me and from my father’s family ⁸  the guilt of Joab’s murderous, bloody deeds. ⁹ 

1 Raja-raja 2:39

2:39 Three years later two of Shimei’s servants ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath. Shimei was told, “Look, your servants are in Gath.”

1 Raja-raja 3:11

3:11 God said to him, “Because you asked for the ability to make wise judicial decisions, and not for long life, or riches, or vengeance on your enemies, ¹⁰ 

1 Raja-raja 3:22

3:22 The other woman said, “No! My son is alive; your son is dead!” But the first woman replied, “No, your son is dead; my son is alive.” Each presented her case before the king. ¹¹ 

1 Raja-raja 7:51--8:1

7:51 When King Solomon finished constructing the Lord’s temple, he ¹²  put the holy items that belonged to his father David (the silver, gold, and other articles) in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple.

Solomon Moves the Ark into the Temple

8:1 ¹³ Then Solomon convened in Jerusalem ¹⁴  Israel’s elders, all the leaders of the Israelite tribes and families, so they could witness the transferal of the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the city of David (that is, Zion). ¹⁵ 

1 Raja-raja 8:9

8:9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb. ¹⁶  It was there that ¹⁷  the Lord made an agreement with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

1 Raja-raja 8:32

8:32 Listen from heaven and make a just decision about your servants’ claims. Condemn the guilty party, declare the other innocent, and give both of them what they deserve. ¹⁸ 

1 Raja-raja 8:39

8:39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin, ¹⁹  and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of his motives. ²⁰  (Indeed you are the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people.) ²¹ 

1 Raja-raja 8:58

8:58 May he make us submissive, ²²  so we can follow all his instructions ²³  and obey ²⁴  the commandments, rules, and regulations he commanded our ancestors.

1 Raja-raja 8:66

8:66 On the fifteenth day after the festival started, ²⁵  he dismissed the people. They asked God to empower the king ²⁶  and then went to their homes, happy and content ²⁷  because of all the good the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.

1 Raja-raja 9:5

9:5 Then I will allow your dynasty to rule over Israel permanently, ²⁸  just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ ²⁹ 

1 Raja-raja 9:8

9:8 This temple will become a heap of ruins; ³⁰  everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn, ³¹  saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’

1 Raja-raja 9:16

9:16 (Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer. He burned it and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city. He gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, who had married Solomon.)

1 Raja-raja 10:9

10:9 May the Lord your God be praised because he favored ³²  you by placing you on the throne of Israel! Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he made you king so you could make just and right decisions.” ³³ 

1 Raja-raja 10:12

10:12 With the timber the king made supports ³⁴  for the Lord’s temple and for the royal palace and stringed instruments ³⁵  for the musicians. No one has seen so much of this fine timber to this very day. ³⁶ )

1 Raja-raja 11:11

11:11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you insist on doing these things and have not kept the covenantal rules I gave you, ³⁷  I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

1 Raja-raja 12:6

12:6 King Rehoboam consulted with the older advisers who had served ³⁸  his father Solomon when he had been alive. He asked them, ³⁹  “How do you advise me to answer these people?”

1 Raja-raja 12:20

12:20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one except the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the Davidic dynasty. ⁴⁰ 

1 Raja-raja 12:28

12:28 After the king had consulted with his advisers, ⁴¹  he made two golden calves. Then he said to the people, ⁴²  “It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

1 Raja-raja 13:11

13:11 Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. ⁴³  When his sons came home, they told their father ⁴⁴  everything the prophet ⁴⁵  had done in Bethel that day and all the words he had spoken to the king. ⁴⁶ 

1 Raja-raja 13:33

A Prophet Announces the End of Jeroboam’s Dynasty

13:33 After this happened, Jeroboam still did not change his evil ways; ⁴⁷  he continued to appoint common people ⁴⁸  as priests at the high places. Anyone who wanted the job he consecrated as a priest. ⁴⁹ 

1 Raja-raja 14:13

14:13 All Israel will mourn him and bury him. He is the only one in Jeroboam’s family ⁵⁰  who will receive a decent burial, for he is the only one in whom the Lord God of Israel found anything good.

1 Raja-raja 15:20

15:20 Ben Hadad accepted King Asa’s offer and ordered his army commanders to attack the cities of Israel. ⁵¹  They conquered ⁵²  Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the territory of Naphtali, including the region of Kinnereth. ⁵³ 

1 Raja-raja 15:27

15:27 Baasha son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar, conspired against Nadab ⁵⁴  and assassinated him in Gibbethon, which was in Philistine territory. This happened while Nadab and all the Israelite army were besieging Gibbethon.

1 Raja-raja 16:13

16:13 This happened because of all the sins which Baasha and his son Elah committed and which they made Israel commit. They angered the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols. ⁵⁵ 

1 Raja-raja 16:31

16:31 As if following in the sinful footsteps of Jeroboam son of Nebat were not bad enough, he married Jezebel the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians. Then he worshiped and bowed to Baal. ⁵⁶ 

1 Raja-raja 17:1

Elijah Visits a Widow in Sidonian Territory

17:1 Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As certainly as the Lord God of Israel lives (whom I serve), ⁵⁷  there will be no dew or rain in the years ahead unless I give the command.” ⁵⁸ 

1 Raja-raja 18:23

18:23 Let them bring us two bulls. Let them choose one of the bulls for themselves, cut it up into pieces, and place it on the wood. But they must not set it on fire. I will do the same to the other bull and place it on the wood. But I will not set it on fire.

1 Raja-raja 18:25

18:25 Elijah told the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls for yourselves and go first, for you are the majority. Invoke the name of your god, but do not light a fire.” ⁵⁹ 

1 Raja-raja 18:27

18:27 At noon Elijah mocked them, “Yell louder! After all, he is a god; he may be deep in thought, or perhaps he stepped out for a moment or has taken a trip. Perhaps he is sleeping and needs to be awakened.” ⁶⁰ 

1 Raja-raja 19:20

19:20 He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, then I will follow you.” Elijah ⁶¹  said to him, “Go back! Indeed, what have I done to you?”

1 Raja-raja 20:22

The Lord Gives Israel Another Victory

20:22 The prophet ⁶²  visited the king of Israel and instructed him, “Go, fortify your defenses. ⁶³  Determine ⁶⁴  what you must do, for in the spring ⁶⁵  the king of Syria will attack ⁶⁶  you.”

1 Raja-raja 22:13

22:13 Now the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the prophets are in complete agreement that the king will succeed. ⁶⁷  Your words must agree with theirs; you must predict success.” ⁶⁸ 

1 Raja-raja 22:17

22:17 Micaiah ⁶⁹  said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd. Then the Lord said, ‘They have no master. They should go home in peace.’”

1 Raja-raja 22:35

22:35 While the battle raged throughout the day, the king stood propped up in his chariot opposite the Syrians. He died in the evening; the blood from the wound ran down into the bottom of the chariot.

[2:3]  ¹ tn Heb “keep the charge of the Lord your God.”

[2:3]  ² tn Heb “by walking in his ways.”

[2:3]  ³ tn Or “keeping.”

[2:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “then you will cause to succeed all which you do and all which you turn there.”

[2:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “do loyalty with”; or “act faithfully toward.”

[2:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “and let them be among the ones who eat [at] your table.”

[2:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “drew near to.”

[2:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “house.”

[2:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “take away the undeserved bloodshed which Joab spilled from upon me and from upon the house of my father.”

[3:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “because you asked for this thing, and did not ask for yourself many days and did not ask for yourself riches and did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you asked for yourself understanding to hear judgment.”

[3:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they spoke before the king.” Another option is to translate, “they argued before the king.”

[7:51]  ¹² tn Heb “Solomon.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:1]  ¹³ tc The Old Greek translation includes the following words at the beginning of ch. 8: “It so happened that when Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple and his own house, after twenty years.”

[8:1]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Then Solomon convened the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers belonging to the sons of Israel to King Solomon [in] Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David (it is Zion).”

[8:9]  ¹⁶ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai.

[8:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in Horeb where.”

[8:32]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and you, hear [from] heaven and act and judge your servants by declaring the guilty to be guilty, to give his way on his head, and to declare the innocent to be innocent, to give to him according to his innocence.”

[8:39]  ¹⁹ tn The words “their sin” are added for clarification.

[8:39]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and act and give to each one according to all his ways because you know his heart.” In the Hebrew text vv. 37-39a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided up for stylistic reasons.

[8:39]  ²¹ tn Heb “Indeed you know, you alone, the heart of all the sons of mankind.”

[8:58]  ²² tn Heb “to bend our hearts toward him.” The infinitive is subordinate to the initial prayer, “may the Lord our God be with us.” The Hebrew term לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) here refers to the people’s volition and will.

[8:58]  ²³ tn Heb “to walk in all his ways.”

[8:58]  ²⁴ tn Heb “keep.”

[8:66]  ²⁵ tn Heb “on the eighth day” (that is, the day after the second seven-day sequence).

[8:66]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they blessed the king.”

[8:66]  ²⁷ tn Heb “good of heart.”

[9:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever.”

[9:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from upon the throne of Israel.”

[9:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and this house will be high [or elevated].” The statement makes little sense in this context, which predicts the desolation that judgment will bring. Some treat the clause as concessive, “Even though this temple is lofty [now].” Others, following the lead of several ancient versions, emend the text to, “this temple will become a heap of ruins.”

[9:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “hiss,” or perhaps “whistle.” This refers to a derisive sound one would make when taunting an object of ridicule.

[10:9]  ³² tn Or “delighted in.”

[10:9]  ³³ tn Heb “to do justice and righteousness.”

[10:12]  ³⁴ tn This Hebrew architectural term occurs only here. The meaning is uncertain; some have suggested “banisters” or “parapets”; cf. TEV, NLT “railings.” The parallel passage in 2 Chr 9:11 has a different word, meaning “tracks,” or perhaps “steps.”

[10:12]  ³⁵ tn Two types of stringed instruments are specifically mentioned, the כִּנּוֹר (kinnor, “zither” [?]), and נֶבֶל (nevel, “harp”).

[10:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “there has not come thus, the fine timber, and there has not been seen to this day.”

[11:11]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Because this is with you, and you have not kept my covenant and my rules which I commanded you.”

[12:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “stood before.”

[12:6]  ³⁹ tn Heb “saying.”

[12:20]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “there was no one [following] after the house of David except the tribe of Judah, it alone.”

[12:28]  ⁴¹ tn The words “with his advisers” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:28]  ⁴² tn Heb “to them,” although this may be a corruption of “to the people.” Cf. the Old Greek translation.

[13:11]  ⁴³ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[13:11]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and his son came and told him.” The MT has the singular here, but several other textual witnesses have the plural, which is more consistent with the second half of the verse and with vv. 12-13.

[13:11]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “the man of God.”

[13:11]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “all the actions which the man of God performed that day in Bethel, the words which he spoke to the king, and they told them to their father.”

[13:33]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “did not turn from his evil way.”

[13:33]  ⁴⁸ sn The expression common people refers to people who were not Levites. See 1 Kgs 12:31.

[13:33]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and one who had the desire he was filling his hand so that he became [one of] the priests of the high places.”

[14:13]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “house.”

[15:20]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and Ben Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of the armies which belonged to him against the cities of Israel.”

[15:20]  ⁵² tn Heb “he struck down.”

[15:20]  ⁵³ tn Heb “and all Kinnereth together with all the land of Naphtali.”

[15:27]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “against him”; the referent (Nadab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:13]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “angering the Lord God of Israel with their empty things.”

[16:31]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “and he went and served Baal and bowed down to him.”

[16:31]  sn The Canaanites worshiped Baal as a storm and fertility god.

[17:1]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “before whom I stand.”

[17:1]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “except at the command of my word.”

[18:25]  ⁵⁹ tc The last sentence of v. 25 is absent in the Syriac Peshitta.

[18:27]  ⁶⁰ sn Elijah’s sarcastic proposals would have been especially offensive and irritating to Baal’s prophets, for they believed Baal was imprisoned in the underworld as death’s captive during this time of drought. Elijah’s apparent ignorance of their theology is probably designed for dramatic effect; indeed the suggestion that Baal is away on a trip or deep in sleep comes precariously close to the truth as viewed by the prophets.

[19:20]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:22]  ⁶² tn The definite article indicates previous reference, that is, “the prophet mentioned earlier” (see v. 13).

[20:22]  ⁶³ tn Heb “strengthen yourself.”

[20:22]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “know and see.”

[20:22]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “at the turning of the year.”

[20:22]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “go up against.”

[22:13]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “the words of the prophets are [with] one mouth good for the king.”

[22:13]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “let your words be like the word of each of them and speak good.”

[22:17]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Micaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.