1 Kings 21

¹⁸Their territory included Jezreel, Chesulloth, Shunem,

⁴⁵Meanwhile, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and a heavy rain began to fall. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.

⁴⁶And the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and he tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

²²In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord.

³³Then all the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east gathered together, crossed over the Jordan, and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.

¹³After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),

¹⁴shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

¹Now the Philistines brought all their forces together at Aphek, while Israel camped by the spring in Jezreel.

¹⁴He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his servants.

¹⁴But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

¹⁵Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

⁹Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

⁶“Here,” said Abram, “your servant is in your hands. Do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she fled from her.

²⁷When King Ahaziah of Judah saw this, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan. And Jehu pursued him, shouting, “Shoot him too!” So they shot Ahaziah in his chariot on the Ascent of Gur, near Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo and died there.

⁶But when they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” their demand was displeasing in the sight of Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.

⁷No inheritance in Israel may be transferred from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

²³The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.

¹⁸The prince must not take any of the inheritance of the people by evicting them from their property. He is to provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of My people will be displaced from his property.’”

²⁹Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and turn away from Him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, or sacrifices, other than the altar of the Lord our God, which stands before His tabernacle.”

⁷“Why does my lord say these things?” they asked. “Your servants could not possibly do such a thing.

⁷What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

⁴³Sullen and angry, the king of Israel went home to Samaria.

¹⁴But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

²For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.

⁹Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!

¹⁰You have plotted shame for your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting your life.

³But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

³¹And as if it were not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he even married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he then proceeded to serve and worship Baal.

⁴and he asked Amnon, “Why are you, the son of the king, so depressed morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon replied, “I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

⁶When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

⁵Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs appointed to her, and she dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what was troubling him and why.

²So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the lives of those you killed!”

²so the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, though you are not ill? This could only be sadness of the heart.” I was overwhelmed with fear

⁹That day Haman went out full of joy and glad of heart. At the king’s gate, however, he saw Mordecai, who did not rise or tremble in fear at his presence. And Haman was filled with rage toward Mordecai.

¹⁰Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. And calling for his friends and his wife Zeresh,

³⁰A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

²You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask.

³And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

²So Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard to use as a vegetable garden, since it is next to my palace. I will give you a better vineyard in its place—or if you prefer, I will give you its value in silver.”

³But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

⁹Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

¹²Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief.

³Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.

⁴So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.

⁴For the king’s word is supreme, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

¹⁵When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, who refused to give it to you for silver. For Naboth is no longer alive, but dead.”

¹⁶And when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

¹Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.

²They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.

³¹a strutting rooster; a he-goat; and a king with his army around him.

⁷And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. It was written in Aramaic and then translated.

⁸Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote the letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

¹⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Bring Me seventy of the elders of Israel known to you as leaders and officers of the people. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting and have them stand there with you.

¹¹So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his great men and close friends and priests, leaving him without a single survivor.

⁸Now you may write in the king’s name as you please regarding the Jews, and seal it with the royal signet ring. For a decree that is written in the name of the king and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked.”

⁹At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush—writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

¹⁸You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

¹⁴The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.

¹⁵In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”

⁴You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.

⁴⁷They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”

⁸And sending them to Bethlehem, he said: “Go and search carefully for the Child, and when you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.”

¹³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

²⁸Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.

¹³But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.

¹⁴“We cannot do such a thing,” they said. “To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace to us.

²⁸You must not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.

¹¹Then they prompted some men to say, “We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.”

¹⁵And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin.

¹⁶Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord must surely be put to death; the whole assembly must surely stone him, whether he is a foreign resident or native; if he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.

¹⁵A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

¹³that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known),

⁵⁹Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking false testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death.

⁶⁰But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward

²¹But they conspired against Zechariah, and by order of the king, they stoned him in the courtyard of the house of the Lord.

¹⁵You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.

¹⁶You have kept the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their counsel. Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of contempt; you will bear the scorn of the nations.”

¹⁹But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.

²⁹But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.

⁴You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.

⁸Then Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived with Naboth in his city.

⁹In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people.

²⁶‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares the Lord, so will I repay you on this plot of ground, declares the Lord.’ Now then, according to the word of the Lord, pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground.”

¹¹Hostile witnesses come forward; they make charges I know nothing about.

⁹Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”

¹⁶You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹⁹a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers.

¹²Do not hand me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence.

⁸If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

¹⁴The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.

¹⁵In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”

¹⁴There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them.

¹¹If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

⁷But his wife Jezebel said to him, “Do you not reign over Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful, for I will get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸When you see a thief, you befriend him, and throw in your lot with adulterers.

¹⁵David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!”

¹⁶So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the Lord,

¹⁵He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

¹³And David inquired of the young man who had brought him the report, “Where are you from?” “I am the son of a foreigner,” he answered. “I am an Amalekite.”

¹⁴So David asked him, “Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?”

⁹But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,

¹⁰when someone told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was a bearer of good news, I seized him and put him to death at Ziklag. That was his reward for his news!

²⁵Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”

²⁶When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

¹²For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.

²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.

¹⁵Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him.” So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

¹⁶And Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the Lord says: Is there really no God in Israel for you to inquire of His word? Is that why you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.”

²⁶But Elisha questioned him, “Did not my spirit go with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to accept money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, menservants and maidservants?

³²for the message that he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”

⁹Then Jehu looked for Ahaziah, and Jehu’s soldiers captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. So Ahaziah was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart.” So no one was left from the house of Ahaziah with the strength to rule the kingdom.

³⁸And the chariot was washed at the pool of Samaria where the prostitutes bathed, and the dogs licked up Ahab’s blood, according to the word that the Lord had spoken.

⁹Why then have you despised the command of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own. You have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.

¹²Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!

¹⁵He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

¹¹“Who told you that you were naked?” asked the Lord God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?

²You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

¹⁷They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

²⁵(Surely there was never one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, incited by his wife Jezebel.

¹⁷When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”

¹⁰And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

³For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”

¹⁰Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone!

²²May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one male belonging to Nabal survive until morning.”

¹Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying:

²“When this letter arrives, since your master’s sons are with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weaponry,

¹¹So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his great men and close friends and priests, leaving him without a single survivor.

¹²Then Jehu set out toward Samaria. At Beth-eked of the Shepherds,

²⁶For the Lord saw that the affliction of the Israelites, both slave and free, was very bitter. There was no one to help Israel,

³⁰Nevertheless, the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in My sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel.”

³So now I will consume Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat:

¹⁶So He will give Israel over on account of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”

¹¹As soon as Zimri began to reign and was seated on the throne, he struck down the entire household of Baasha. He did not leave a single male, whether a kinsman or friend.

²⁹As soon as Baasha became king, he struck down the entire household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone who breathed, but destroyed them all according to the word that the Lord had spoken through His servant Ahijah the Shilonite,

³⁰because of the sins Jeroboam had committed and had caused Israel to commit, and because he had provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger.

³⁴And Baasha did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.

³⁰And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves.

¹⁰And on the plot of ground at Jezreel the dogs will devour Jezebel, and there will be no one to bury her.’” Then the young prophet opened the door and ran.

³⁰Now when Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked down from a window.

³¹And as Jehu entered the gate, she asked, “Have you come in peace, O Zimri, murderer of your master?”

²⁵(Surely there was never one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, incited by his wife Jezebel.

⁴Anyone belonging to Baasha who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.”

¹¹Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.’ For the Lord has spoken.

³I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

¹⁸You will eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls—all the fattened animals of Bashan.

¹⁹At the sacrifice I am preparing, you will eat fat until you are gorged and drink blood until you are drunk.

¹⁹But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.

⁴I will abandon you on the land and hurl you into the open field. I will cause all the birds of the air to settle upon you, and all the beasts of the earth to eat their fill of you.

⁵I will put your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your remains.

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the wrath of the Lord will fall into it.

²⁰When Elijah arrived, Ahab said to him, “So you have found me out, my enemy.” He replied, “I have found you out because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord.

³⁰However, Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.

³¹And as if it were not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he even married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he then proceeded to serve and worship Baal.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

²But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

¹⁹I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

¹¹“Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed all these abominations, acting more wickedly than the Amorites who preceded him, and with his idols has caused Judah to sin,

¹⁶In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

²⁵Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.

²⁶But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you.

¹²He oppresses the poor and needy; he commits robbery and does not restore a pledge. He lifts his eyes to idols; he commits abominations.

²²You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

²³You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

⁴sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs and polluted broth from their bowls.

³⁰When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by on the wall, the people saw the sackcloth under his clothes next to his skin.

³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

³¹Then David ordered Joab and all the people with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.” And King David himself walked behind the funeral bier.

¹⁵I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.

¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁶David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted and went into his house and spent the night lying in sackcloth on the ground.

¹⁷The elders of his household stood beside him to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.

⁹The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

²⁵And Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, “Pick him up and throw him into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. For remember that when you and I were riding together behind his father Ahab, the Lord lifted up this burden against him:

²⁶‘As surely as I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares the Lord, so will I repay you on this plot of ground, declares the Lord.’ Now then, according to the word of the Lord, pick him up and throw him on the plot of ground.”

¹⁵But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.

³³“Throw her down!” yelled Jehu. So they threw her down, and her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses as they trampled her underfoot.

⁴⁴When they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cower before me.