2 Chronicles 1; 2 Chronicles 2; 2 Chronicles 3; 2 Chronicles 4; 2 Chronicles 5; 2 Chronicles 6; 2 Chronicles 7; 2 Chronicles 8; 2 Chronicles 9

2 Chronicles 1

1 Solomon, David's son, was securely established over his kingdom because the LORD his God was with him and made him very great.

2 Solomon summoned all Israel, including the officers of the army, the judges, and every Israelite leader who was the head of a family.

3 Then Solomon, accompanied by the whole assembly, went to the shrine at Gibeon because that is where God's meeting tent was, the tent that the LORD's servant Moses had made in the wilderness.

4 Now David had already brought God's chest from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it because he had pitched a tent for the chest in Jerusalem.

5 But the bronze altar that Bezalel, Uri's son and Hur's grandson, had made was there in front of the LORD's dwelling, so that is where Solomon and the assembly worshipped.

6 Solomon went there to the bronze altar in the LORD's presence at the meeting tent and offered a thousand entirely burned offerings upon it.

7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said, "Ask whatever you wish, and I will give it to you."

8 "You showed so much kindness to my father David," Solomon replied to God,"and you have made me king in his place.

9 Now, LORD God, let your promise to my father David be fulfilled because you have made me king over a people as numerous as the earth's dust.

10 Give me wisdom and knowledge so I can lead this people, because no one can govern this great people of yours without your help."

11 God said to Solomon, "Since this is what you wish, and because you've asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I've made you king—rather than asking for wealth, riches, fame, victory over those who hate you, or even a long life—

12 your request for wisdom and knowledge is granted. But I will also give you wealth, riches, and fame beyond that of any king before you or after you."

13 Then Solomon went from the shrine in Gibeon, from the meeting tent to Jerusalem where he ruled over Israel.

14 Solomon acquired more and more chariots and horses until he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he stationed in chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

15 In Jerusalem, the king made silver and gold as common as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore trees that grow in the foothills.

16 Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and Kue, purchased from Kue by the king's agents at the going price.

17 They would import a chariot from Egypt for six hundred pieces of silver and a horse for one hundred fifty, and then export them to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.

2 Chronicles 2

1 Solomon gave orders to build a temple for the LORD's name and to build a royal palace for himself.

2 To work in the highlands, Solomon drafted 70,000 laborers, 80,000 stonecutters, and 3,600 supervisors.

3 Solomon sent the following message to King Huram of Tyre: When my father David was building his palace, you sent him cedar logs.

4 Now as his son I am about to build a temple in the name of the LORD my God. I will dedicate it to him to burn fragrant incense before him, to set out the bread that is regularly displayed, and to offer entirely burned offerings every morning and evening, on the sabbaths, the first of every month, and the festivals of the LORD our God, as Israel has been commanded to do forever.

5 The temple I am about to build must be magnificent, because our God is greater than all other gods.

6 But who is able to build such a temple when even the highest heaven can't contain God? And who am I that I should build this temple for God, except as a place to burn incense in his presence?

7 So now send me a craftsman skilled in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as in purple, crimson, and violet yarn—someone also experienced as an engraver. He will work with my craftsmen in Judah and Jerusalem who were provided by my father David.

8 Also send me cedar, cypress, and sandalwood logs from Lebanon. I know your servants know how to cut Lebanese timber, so my servants will work with your servants

9 to prepare plenty of timber for me, because the temple that I am about to build will be magnificent and amazing.

10 I will pay the woodcutters twenty thousand kors of crushed wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of olive oil.

11 Tyre's King Huram replied in a letter that he sent to Solomon: The LORD must love his people Israel because he has made you their king!

12 Bless the LORD, Israel's God, who made heaven and earth. He gave King David a wise son who possesses the knowledge and understanding to build a temple for the LORD and a royal palace for himself.

13 I'm sending you a skilled and experienced craftsman, Huram-abi,

14 whose mother is from the tribe of Dan and whose father is from Tyre. He's skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, as well as purple, violet, and crimson yarn, and fine linen. He can do any kind of engraving and make any design given to him with the assistance of your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my master, your father David.

15 So once my master sends the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine he has promised,

16 we will cut as much timber as you need from Lebanon and bring it by raft on the sea to you at Joppa, where you can take it up to Jerusalem.

17 Then Solomon counted all the immigrants in the land of Israel, as his father David had done, and the total was 153,600.

18 He made 70,000 of these immigrants laborers, 80,000 of them stonecutters in the highlands, and 3,600 of them supervisors to keep the people working.

2 Chronicles 3

1 Solomon began to build the LORD's temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, on the place David had prepared at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

2 He began building in the second month of the fourth year of his rule.

3 Solomon laid the foundations for these structures in order to build the temple of God. The length according to the old standard of measurement was ninety feet and the width thirty feet.

4 Across the front of the temple was a porch as long as the temple was and thirty feet wide, and thirty feet high. He covered the inside walls with pure gold.

5 He paneled the walls of the main room with pine, covered them with fine gold, and decorated them with palm trees and chains.

6 He studded the room with precious stones for beauty; the gold was from Parvaim.

7 He covered the room, its beams, doorframes, walls, and doors with gold, and carved images of winged creatures on the walls.

8 Then he made the most holy place. It was as long as the temple was wide, thirty feet long and thirty feet wide. He covered it with six hundred kikkars of fine gold.

9 The gold nails weighed fifty shekels. He also covered the upper rooms with gold.

10 In the most holy place he formed two statues of winged creatures and covered them with gold.

11 Together the wingspan of these creatures was thirty feet. One of the first creature's wings was seven and a half feet long and touched the temple wall, while the other wing was seven and a half feet long, touching the wing of the other creature.

12 Similarly, one wing of the other creature was seven and a half feet long and touched the temple wall, while the other wing was seven and a half feet long and touched the other creature.

13 The wings of these creatures extended thirty feet. They stood on their feet facing the main room.

14 Then he made the curtain out of fine linen and violet, purple, and crimson yarn, weaving winged creatures into it.

15 Then he made two columns in front of the temple, fifty-two and a half feet high, with a seven and a half foot cap on top of each.

16 Then he made chains like a necklace and placed them on the tops of the columns. He made a hundred pomegranates and placed them into the chains.

17 Then he set up the pillars in front of the sanctuary, one on the south, the other on the north. The one on the south he named Jachin, and the one on the north he named Boaz.

2 Chronicles 4

1 He also made a bronze altar thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and fifteen feet high.

2 Then he made a tank of cast metal called the Sea. It was circular in shape, fifteen feet from rim to rim, seven and a half feet high, and forty-five feet in circumference.

3 Under the rim were two rows of oxlike figures completely encircling it, ten every eighteen inches, each cast in its mold.

4 The Sea rested on twelve oxen with their backs toward the center, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east.

5 The Sea was as thick as the width of a hand. Its rim was shaped like a cup or an open lily blossom. It could hold three thousand baths.

6 He also made ten washbasins and put five on the south and five on the north. The items used for the entirely burned offerings were rinsed in these. The priests washed in the Sea.

7 He made ten gold lampstands as prescribed and put them in the sanctuary, five on the south and five on the north.

8 He also made ten tables and put them in the sanctuary, five on the south and five on the north, as well as a hundred gold bowls.

9 He made the courtyard of the priests and the great courtyard, with doors covered with bronze for the courtyard.

10 He placed the Sea at the southeast corner.

11 Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls. So Huram finished all his work on God's temple for King Solomon:

12 two columns; two circular capitals on top of the columns; two networks adorning the two circular capitals on top of the columns;

13 four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, with two rows of pomegranates for each network that adorned the two circular capitals on top of the columns;

14 ten stands with ten basins on them;

15 one Sea; twelve oxen beneath the Sea;

16 and the pots, the shovels, and the meat forks. All the things that Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the LORD's temple were made of polished bronze.

17 The king cast them in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan.

18 Due to the very large number of objects, Solomon didn't even try to weigh the bronze.

19 Solomon also made all the equipment for God's temple: the gold altar; the tables for the bread of the presence;

20 the lampstands with their lamps, all of pure gold, to burn before the inner sanctuary as prescribed;

21 the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of pure gold;

22 and the wick trimmers, bowls, ladles, and censers of pure gold. As for the temple entrance, the inner doors to the most holy place as well as the doors to the main hall were made of gold.

2 Chronicles 5

1 When all of Solomon's work on the LORD's temple was finished, he brought the silver, gold, and all the objects his father David had dedicated and put them in the treasuries of God's temple.

2 Then Solomon assembled Israel's elders, all the tribal leaders, and the clan chieftains of Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the chest containing the LORD's covenant from Zion, David's City.

3 Everyone in Israel assembled before the king in the seventh month, during the festival.

4 When all Israel's elders had arrived, the Levites picked up the chest.

5 They brought the chest, the meeting tent, and all the holy objects that were in the tent. The priests and the Levites brought them up,

6 while King Solomon and the entire Israelite assembly that had joined him before the chest sacrificed countless sheep and oxen.

7 The priests brought the chest containing the LORD's covenant to its designated spot beneath the wings of the winged creatures in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the most holy place.

8 The winged creatures spread their wings over the place where the chest rested, covering the chest and its carrying poles.

9 The carrying poles were so long that their tips could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, though they weren't visible from outside. They are still there today.

10 Nothing was in the chest except the two stone tablets Moses placed there while at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they left Egypt.

11 Then the priests left the holy place. All the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, regardless of their divisions.

12 All the levitical musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their families and relatives—were dressed in fine linen and stood east of the altar with cymbals, harps, and zithers, along with one hundred twenty priests blowing trumpets.

13 The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD as one. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments, they began to sing, praising the LORD: Yes, God is good! Yes, God's faithful love lasts forever! Then a cloud filled the LORD's temple.

14 The priests were unable to carry out their duties on account of the cloud because the LORD's glory filled God's temple.

2 Chronicles 6

1 Then Solomon said, "The LORD said that he would live in a dark cloud;

2 but God, I have built you a lofty temple—a place where you can live forever."

3 The king turned around, and while the entire assembly of Israel was standing there, he blessed them,

4 saying: Bless the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke directly to my father David and now has kept his promise:

5 "From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I haven't selected a city from any Israelite tribe as a site for the building of a temple for my name. Neither have I chosen anyone as prince over my people Israel.

6 But now I have chosen Jerusalem as a place for my name, and David as prince over my people Israel."

7 My father David wanted to build a temple for the name of the LORD, Israel's God.

8 But the LORD said to my father David: "It is very good that you thought to build a temple for my name. Nevertheless,

9 you yourself won't build that temple. Instead, your very own son will build the temple for my name."

10 The LORD has kept his promise—I have succeeded my father David on Israel's throne, just as the LORD said, and I have built the temple for the name of the LORD, Israel's God.

11 There I've placed the chest that contains the covenant that the LORD made with the Israelites.

12 Solomon stood before the LORD's altar in front of the entire Israelite assembly and spread out his hands.

13 Now Solomon had made a bronze platform seven and a half feet long, seven and a half feet wide, and four and a half feet high, and he set it in the middle of the enclosure. He stood on it. Then, kneeling before the whole assembly of Israel and spreading his hands toward the sky,

14 he said: LORD God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on the earth. You keep the covenant and show loyalty to your servants who walk before you with all their heart.

15 This is the covenant you kept with your servant David my father, which you promised him. Today you have fulfilled what you promised.

16 So now, LORD God of Israel, keep what you promised my father David your servant when you said to him, "You will never fail to have a successor sitting on Israel's throne as long as your descendants carefully walk according to my Instruction, just as you have walked before me."

17 So now, LORD God of Israel, may your promise to your servant David come true.

18 But how could God possibly live on earth with people? If heaven, even the highest heaven, can't contain you, how can this temple that I have built contain you?

19 LORD, my God, listen to your servant's prayer and request, and hear the cry and prayer that I your servant pray to you.

20 Constantly watch over this temple, the place where you promised to put your name, and listen to the prayer your servant is praying concerning this place.

21 Listen to the request of your servant and your people Israel when they pray concerning this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive!

22 If someone wrongs another and must take a solemn pledge asserting his innocence before your altar in this temple,

23 then listen from heaven, act, and decide which of your servants is right. Condemn the guilty party, repaying them for their conduct, but justify the innocent person, repaying them for their righteousness.

24 If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, but then they change their hearts, give thanks to your name, and ask for mercy in your presence at this temple,

25 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel. Return them to the land you gave to them and their ancestors.

26 When the sky holds back its rain because Israel has sinned against you, but they then pray concerning this place, give thanks to your name, and turn away from their sin because you have punished them for it,

27 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the best way for them to follow, and send rain on your land that you gave to your people as an inheritance.

28 Whenever there is a famine or plague in the land, or whenever there is blight, mildew, locusts, or grasshoppers, or whenever someone's enemies attack them in their cities, or any plague or illness comes,

29 whatever prayer or petition is made by any individual or by all of your people Israel—because people will recognize their own pain and suffering and spread out their hands toward this temple—

30 then listen from heaven where you live. Forgive, act, and repay each person according to all their conduct because you know their hearts. You alone know the human heart!

31 Do this that they may revere you by following your ways all the days they live on the fertile land that you gave to our ancestors.

32 Listen also to the foreigner who isn't from your people Israel, but who comes from a distant country because of your great reputation, your great power, and your outstretched arm. When they come and pray toward this temple,

33 then listen from heaven where you live, and do everything the foreigner asks. Do this so that all the people of the earth may know your reputation and revere you, as your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I have built bears your name.

34 When your people go to war against their enemies, wherever you may send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and concerning this temple that I have built for your name,

35 then listen from heaven to their prayer and request and do what is right for them.

36 When they sin against you, for there is no one who doesn't sin, and you become angry with them and hand them over to an enemy who takes them away as prisoners to enemy territory, whether distant or nearby,

37 if they change their heart in whatever land they are held captive, turning back and begging for your mercy, saying,"We have sinned, we have done wrong, and we have acted wickedly!"

38 and if they return to you with all their heart and all their being in the enemy territory where they've been taken captive, and pray concerning their land, which you gave to their ancestors, concerning the city you have chosen, and concerning this temple I have built for your name,

39 then listen to their prayer and request from your heavenly dwelling place. Do what is right for them, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

40 Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayers of this place.

41 And now go, LORD God, to your resting place, you and your mighty chest. May your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation; may those loyal to you rejoice in what is good.

42 LORD God, don't reject your anointed one. Remember your faithful loyalty to your servant David.

2 Chronicles 7

1 As soon as Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the entirely burned offering and the sacrifices, while the LORD's glory filled the temple.

2 The priests were unable to enter the LORD's temple because the LORD's glory had filled the LORD's temple.

3 All the Israelites were watching when the fire fell. As the LORD's glory filled the temple, they knelt down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, worshipping and giving thanks to the LORD, saying, "Yes, God is good! Yes, God's faithful love lasts forever!"

4 Then the king and all the people sacrificed to the LORD.

5 King Solomon sacrificed twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep when the king and all the people dedicated God's temple.

6 The priests stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the LORD's musical instruments, which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD, saying, "Yes, God's faithful love lasts forever!" and which David had used when he gave praise. Across from them, the priests were blowing trumpets while all Israel was standing.

7 Solomon also dedicated the middle of the courtyard in front of the LORD's temple. He had to offer the entirely burned offerings and the fat of the well-being sacrifices there because the bronze altar Solomon had made was too small to contain the entirely burned offerings, the grain offerings, and the pieces of fat.

8 At that time Solomon, together with all Israel, celebrated the festival for seven days. It was a very large assembly that came from Lebo-hamath to the border of Egypt.

9 On the eighth day there was a gathering. They had dedicated the altar for seven days and celebrated the festival for another seven days.

10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon dismissed the people to their tents, happy and content because of the goodness the LORD had shown to David, to Solomon, and to his people Israel.

11 In this way, Solomon finished the LORD's temple and the royal palace. He successfully accomplished everything he intended for the LORD's temple and his own palace.

12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place as my house of sacrifice.

13 When I close the sky so that there is no rain or I order the locusts to consume the land or I send a plague against my people,

14 if my people who belong to me will humbly pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

15 From now on my eyes will be open and my ears will pay attention to the prayers offered in this place,

16 because I have chosen this temple and declared it holy so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

17 As for you, if you will walk before me just as your father David did, doing all that I have commanded you and keeping my regulations and case laws,

18 then I will establish your royal throne, just as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a successor ruling in Israel.

19 But if any of you ever turn away from and abandon the regulations and commands that I have given you, and go to serve other gods and worship them,

20 then I will uproot you from my land that I gave you, and I will reject this temple that I made holy for my name. I will make it a joke, insulted by everyone.

21 Everyone who passes by this temple—so lofty now—will be shocked and will wonder, Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and temple?

22 The answer will come, Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods, worshipping and serving them. This is why God brought all this disaster on them.

2 Chronicles 8

1 After twenty years of building the LORD's temple and his royal palace,

2 Solomon next rebuilt the cities Huram had given him, and he settled Israelites there.

3 Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and seized it.

4 He fortified Tadmor in the wilderness, along with all the storage cities he had built in Hamath.

5 Solomon also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon as fortress cities with walls, gates, and crossbars;

6 Baalath; all the cities he used for storage; and all the cities used for chariots and cavalry—along with everything else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his kingdom.

7 Any non-Israelite people who remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—

8 that is, the descendants of such people who were still in the land because the Israelites weren't able to destroy them—Solomon forced into the labor gangs that are still in existence today.

9 However, Solomon didn't force the Israelites to work as slaves; instead, they became warriors, chief officers, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry.

10 And Solomon had two hundred fifty chief officers who were in charge of the people.

11 Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter from David's City to a palace he had built for her, because he said, "My wife mustn't live in the palace of Israel's King David, because the places where the LORD's chest has been are holy."

12 Then Solomon offered entirely burned offerings to the LORD on the LORD's altar that Solomon had built in front of the porch,

13 as each day required, according to the commandment of Moses for sabbaths, new moon festivals, and the three annual festivals—Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Booths.

14 Just as his father David had ordered, Solomon set up the divisions of the priests for their services and the Levites to their posts for offering praise and ministering in front of the priests, doing what needed to be done each day; as well as the gatekeepers in their divisions at each gate, because this was what David the man of God had commanded.

15 They didn't deviate in any way from the king's commands concerning the priests, the Levites, or the treasuries.

16 All Solomon's work was carried out from the day the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid until its completion. Then the LORD's temple was completely finished.

17 Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Eloth on the coast in the land of Edom.

18 Huram had his servants bring ships to Solomon, along with crews of expert sailors. They went with Solomon's servants to Ophir and imported four hundred fifty kikkars of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon.

2 Chronicles 9

1 When the queen of Sheba heard reports about Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with riddles. Accompanying her was a huge entourage, with camels carrying spices, large amounts of gold, and precious stones. After she arrived, she told Solomon everything that was on her mind.

2 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for him to answer.

3 When the queen of Sheba saw how wise Solomon was, the palace he had built,

4 the food on his table, his servants' quarters, the function and dress of his attendants, his cupbearers and their dress, and the entirely burned offerings he offered at the LORD's temple, it took her breath away.

5 "The report I heard about your deeds and wisdom when I was still at home is true," she said to the king.

6 "I didn't believe it until I came and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, the half of it wasn't told to me! You have far more than I was told.

7 Your people and these servants who continually serve you and get to listen to your wisdom are truly happy!

8 Bless the LORD your God because he was pleased to put you on the throne as king for the LORD your God. Because your God loved Israel and wanted to establish them forever, he has made you their king to uphold justice and righteousness."

9 Then she gave the king one hundred twenty kikkars of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again has such a quantity of spice come to Israel as when the queen of Sheba gave this gift to King Solomon.

10 In addition, Huram's servants and the servants of Solomon, who had brought gold back from Ophir, also brought algum wood and precious stones.

11 The king made steps for the LORD's temple and for the royal palace with the algum wood, as well as lyres and harps for the musicians. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah.

12 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted, even more than she had brought the king. Then she and her servants returned to her homeland.

13 Solomon received an annual income of six hundred sixty-six kikkars of gold,

14 not including income from the traders and merchants. All the Arabian kings and the governors of the land also brought Solomon gold and silver.

15 King Solomon made two hundred body-sized shields of hammered gold, using fifteen pounds of hammered gold in each shield;

16 and three hundred small shields of hammered gold, using seven and a half pounds of hammered gold in each shield. The king placed these in the Forest of Lebanon Palace.

17 The king also made a large ivory throne and covered it with pure gold.

18 Six steps led up to the throne, which had a gold footrest attached. Two lions stood beside the armrests on both sides of the throne.

19 Another twelve lions stood on both sides of the six steps. No other kingdom had anything like this.

20 All King Solomon's drinking cups were made of gold, and all the items in the Forest of Lebanon Palace were made of pure gold, not silver, since even silver wasn't considered good enough in Solomon's time!

21 The royal fleet sailed to Tarshish with the servants of Huram, returning once every three years with gold, silver, ivory, monkeys, and peacocks.

22 King Solomon far exceeded all the earth's kings in wealth and wisdom,

23 and kings of every nation wanted an audience with Solomon in order to hear his God-given wisdom.

24 Year after year they came with tribute: objects of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

25 Solomon also had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, together with twelve thousand horsemen that he kept in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

26 He ruled all the kings from the Euphrates to the Philistines' land and the border of Egypt.

27 In Jerusalem, the king made silver as common as stones and cedar as common as sycamore trees that grow in the foothills.

28 Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and every land.

29 The rest of Solomon's deeds, from beginning to end, aren't they written in the records of the prophet Nathan, the prophecies of Ahijah from Shiloh, and the visions of the seer Iddo concerning Jeroboam, Nebat's son?

30 Solomon ruled over all Israel in Jerusalem for forty years.

31 Solomon lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David's City with his father. His son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.