Wednesday 30 November 2016
Using I.D to disprove I.D.
"What about evolution is random and what is not?"
Robert Crowther
Here's another one for my "you can't make this stuff up" file. I kid you not, this is a news story about a new peer-reviewed paper in PLoS Biology by Brian Paegel and Gerald Joyce of The Scripps Research Institute which explains that (all emphasis from here on is mine)
they have produced a computer-controlled system that can drive the evolution of improved RNA enzymes.
I couldn't write a funnier script if I tried. Sadly, these guys just don't get the joke.
The evolution of molecules via scientific experiment is not new. The first RNA enzymes to be "evolved" in the lab were generated in the 1990s. But what is exciting about this work is that the process has been made automatic. Thus evolution is directed by a machine without requiring human intervention-other then providing the initial ingredients and switching the machine on.
But wait it gets better.
Throughout the process, the evolution-machine can propagate the reaction itself, because whenever the enzyme population size reaches a predetermined level, the machine removes a fraction of the population and replaces the starting chemicals needed for the reaction to continue.
What? Predetermined? Predetermined by whom or by what? Oh, the evolution machine, which itself is a result of intelligent agency.
The authors sum it all up very nicely.
This beautifully illustrates what about evolution is random and what is not.
Robert Crowther
Here's another one for my "you can't make this stuff up" file. I kid you not, this is a news story about a new peer-reviewed paper in PLoS Biology by Brian Paegel and Gerald Joyce of The Scripps Research Institute which explains that (all emphasis from here on is mine)
they have produced a computer-controlled system that can drive the evolution of improved RNA enzymes.
I couldn't write a funnier script if I tried. Sadly, these guys just don't get the joke.
The evolution of molecules via scientific experiment is not new. The first RNA enzymes to be "evolved" in the lab were generated in the 1990s. But what is exciting about this work is that the process has been made automatic. Thus evolution is directed by a machine without requiring human intervention-other then providing the initial ingredients and switching the machine on.
But wait it gets better.
Throughout the process, the evolution-machine can propagate the reaction itself, because whenever the enzyme population size reaches a predetermined level, the machine removes a fraction of the population and replaces the starting chemicals needed for the reaction to continue.
What? Predetermined? Predetermined by whom or by what? Oh, the evolution machine, which itself is a result of intelligent agency.
The authors sum it all up very nicely.
This beautifully illustrates what about evolution is random and what is not.
Missing links v. Darwin.
Billions of Missing Links: Hen's Eggs
Geoffrey Simmons
Note: This is one of a series of posts excerpted from my book, Billions of Missing Links: A Rational Look at the Mysteries Evolution Can't Explain
.
When it comes to citing examples of purposeful design, nearly every author likes to point out the hen's egg. It's really quite remarkable. Despite having a shell that is a mere 0.35 mm think, they don't break when a parent sits on them. According to Dr. Knut Schmidt-Nielsen,
A bird egg is a mechanical structure strong enough to hold a chick securely during development, yet weak enough to break out of. The shell must let oxygen in and carbon dioxide out, yet be sufficiently impermeable to water to keep the contents from drying out.
Under microscopy, one can see the shell is a foamlike structure that resists cracking. Gases and water pass through 10,000 pores that average 17 micrometers in diameter. Ultimately, 6 liters of oxygen will have been taken in and 4.5 liters of carbon dioxide given off. The yolk is its food. All life support systems are self-contained, like a space shuttle.
All hen's eggs are ready to hatch on the twenty-first day. Every day is precisely preprogrammed. The heart starts beating on the sixth day. On the nineteenth day the embryo uses its egg tooth to puncture the air sac (beneath the flat end) and then takes two days to crack through the shell.
Giving natural selection a hand?
The Rest of the Story -- Eugenics, Racism, Darwinism
Sarah Chaffee
According to its most ardent proponents, a widespread embrace of evolutionary theory is a big win-win not only for science but for culture and ethics. Our recent report "Darwin's Corrosive Idea" handily dispels that rosy picture as it pertains to the present day. As for history, Jason Jones and John Zmirak writing at The Stream helpfully remind readers of the link between eugenics, racism, and Darwinism.
Their specific topic is Margaret Sanger and the documentary Maafa 21: Black Genocide. Here's what they say about Darwin and how his arguments were used to justify eugenics:
The eugenicists' arrogant certainty that, because they had inherited money and power, they were genetically superior to the rest of the human race, found in Charles Darwin's theories an ideal pretext and a program: to take the survival of the fittest and make it happen faster, by stopping the "unfit" from breeding. The goal, in Margaret Sanger's own words, was "More Children from the Fit, Fewer from the Unfit." Instead of seeing the poor as victims of injustice or targets for Christian charity, the materialism these elitists took from Darwin assured them that the poor were themselves the problem -- that they were inferior, deficient and dangerous down to the marrow of their bones.
The authors note that the eugenics movement itself was undergirded by racism. The video Maafa 21, they note, links the rise of eugenics to white anxiety about the "negro problem" following the end of the Civil War.
In his book Darwin Day in America, Center for Science & Culture associate director John West has written extensively about the social damage linked to Darwinism.
Jones and Zmirak bring up some harrowing examples, among them the observation that Sanger's friend Lothrop Stoddard was a leader in the Massachusetts Klu Klux Klan and wrote a book Hitler called his "bible." A speaker Sanger invited to a population conference, Eugen Fisher, had operated a concentration camp in Africa imprisoning natives. Jones and Zimrak note, "It was Fischer's book on eugenics, which Hitler had read in prison, that convinced Hitler of its central importance." For more historical background, read historian Richard Weikart's books including his most recent, Hitler's Religion.
They say that history is written by the victors. With evolutionary theory holding sway in the media and academia, it's little wonder we rarely hear about these connections and events.
Life's machine code v. Darwin.
My Dear Watson: Four Observations on the DNA Code and Evolution
Cornelius Hunter
The DNA code is used in cells to translate a sequence of nucleotides into a sequence of amino acids, which then make up a protein. In the past fifty years we have learned four important things about the code:
1. The DNA code is universal. There are minor variations scattered about, but the same canonical code is found across the species.
2. The DNA code is special. The DNA is not just some random, off the shelf, code. It has unique properties that, for example, make the translation process more robust to mutations. The code has been called "one in a million
," but it probably is even more special than that. One
study
found that the code optimizes "a combination of several different functions simultaneously."
3. Some of the special properties of the DNA code only rarely confer benefit. Many of the code's special properties deal with rare mutation events. If such properties could arise via random mutation in an individual organism, their benefit would not be common.
4. The DNA code's fitness landscape has dependencies on the DNA coding sequences and so favors stasis. Changes in the DNA code may well wreak havoc as the DNA coding sequences are suddenly not interpreted correctly. So the fitness landscape, at any given location in the code design space, is not only rugged but often is a local minimum, thus freezing evolution at that code.
Observation #1 above, according to evolutionary theory, means that the code is the ultimate homology and must have been present in the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). There was essentially zero evolution of the code allowed over the course of billions of years.
This code stasis can be understood, from an evolutionary perspective, using Observation #4. Given the many dependencies on the DNA coding sequences, the code can be understood to be at a local minimum and so impossible to evolve.
Hence Francis Crick's characterization, and subsequent promotion by later evolutionists, of the code as a "frozen accident." Somehow the code arose, but was then strongly maintained and unevolvable.
But then there is Observation #2. The code has been found to be not mundane, but special. This falsified the "frozen accident" characterization, as the code is clearly not an accident. It also caused a monumental problem. While evolutionists could understand Observation #1, the universality of the code, as a consequence of the code being at a fitness local minimum, Observation #2 tells us that the code would not have just luckily been constructed at its present design.
If evolution somehow created a code to begin with, it would be at some random starting point. Evolution would have no a priori knowledge of the fitness landscape. There is a large number of possible codes, so it would be incredibly lucky for evolution's starting point to be anywhere near the special, canonical code we observe today. There would be an enormous evolutionary distance to travel between an initial random starting point, and the code we observe.
And yet there is not even so much as a trace of such a monumental evolutionary process. This would be an incredible convergence. In biology, when we see convergence, we usually also see variety. The mammalian and cephalopod eyes are considered to be convergent, but they also have fundamental differences. And in other species, there are all kinds of different vision systems. The idea that the universal DNA code is the result of convergence would be very suspect. Why are there no other canonical codes found? Why are there not more variants of the code? To have that much evolutionary distance covered, and converge with that level of precision would very strange.
And of course, in addition to this strange absence of any evidence of such a monumental evolutionary process, there is the problem described above with evolving the code to begin with. The code's fitness landscape is rugged and loaded with many local minima. Making much progress at all in evolving the code would be difficult.
But then there is Observation #3. Not only do we not see traces of the required monumental process of evolving the code across a great distance, and not only would this process be almost immediately halted by the many local minima in the fitness landscape, but what fitness improvements could actually be realized would not likely be selected for because said improvements rarely actually confer their benefit.
While these problems are obviously daunting, we have so far taken yet another tremendous problem for granted: the creation of the initial code, as a starting point.
We have discussed above the many problems with evolving today's canonical code from some starting point, all the while allowing for such a starting point simply to magically appear. But that, alone, is a big problem for evolution. The evolution of any code, even a simple code, from no code, is a tremendous problem.
Finally, a possible explanation for these several and significant problems to the evolution of the DNA code is the hypothesis that the code did not actually evolve so much as construct. Just as the right sequence of amino acids will inevitably fold into a functional protein, so too perhaps the DNA code simply is the consequence of biochemical interactions and reactions. In this sense the code would not evolve from random mutations, but rather would be inevitable. In that case, there would be no lengthy evolutionary pathway to traverse.
Now I don't want to give the impression that this hypothesis is mature or fleshed out. It is extremely speculative. But there is another, more significant, problem with it: It is not evolution.
If true, this hypothesis would confirm design. In other words, a chemically determined pathway, which as such is written into the very fabric of matter and nature's laws, would not only be profound but teleological. The DNA code would be built into biochemistry.
And given Observation #2, it is a very special, unique, detailed, code that would be built into biochemistry. It would not merely be a mundane code that happened to be enabled or determined by biochemistry, but essentially an optimized code. Long live Aristotle.
The problem is there simply is no free lunch. Evolutionists can try to avoid the science, but there it is.
Nature's world wide web v. Darwin.
Evolutionist Recommends "Listening to Other Arguments," Except When It Comes to Evolution
David Klinghoffer
We may be on the third wave of a scientific revolution in biology. It may be so big, the story "no doubt has Ernst Mayr hyperventilating in his grave," thinks evolutionary biologist Nora Besansky of the University of Notre Dame. Mayr influenced a generation of evolutionists. Is one of his core Darwinian concepts unraveling? In Science Magazine, Elizabeth Pennisi sets the stage:
Most of those who studied animals had instead bought into the argument by the famous mid-20th century evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr that the formation of a new species requires reproductive isolation. Mayr and his contemporaries thought that the offspring of any hybrids would be less fit or even infertile, and would not persist. To be sure, captive animals could be interbred: Breeders crossed the African serval cat with domestic cats to produce the Savannah cat, and the Asian leopard cat with domestic breeds to produce the Bengal cat. There's even a "liger," the result of a zoo mating of a tiger and a lion. But like male mules, male ligers are sterile, supporting the notion that in nature, hybridization is mostly a dead end. [Emphasis added.]
Indeed, the biological concept of "species" practically requires reproductive isolation. Hybridization, while known since ancient civilizations bred mules, seems unnatural and rare. It played little role in classical Darwinian theory, which relies on emergent variation and selection for the origin of species. According to hybridization specialist Eugene M. McCarthy in "Darwin's Assessment of Hybridization," "Darwin did come to attribute more significance to hybridization in his later years," but it never gained significant traction in any edition of the Origin, his most widely read book. "Certainly such ideas were never canonized among the dogmas of neo-Darwinian theory."
For Darwin's branching tree-of-life diagram to work, innovations must be passed along in ancestor-descendent relationships, moving vertically up the branches over time by inheritance of chance mutations. Hybrids interfere with this picture by allowing branches to share genetic information horizontally all at once. And if the branches can re-join by back-crossing, the tree metaphor becomes more like a net. Pennisi understands the challenge to Darwinism in her title, "Shaking Up the Tree of Life," when she says, "Species were once thought to keep to themselves. Now, hybrids are turning up everywhere, challenging evolutionary theory."
The revolution has come in three waves. The first involved microbes, when horizontal gene transfer (HGT), sometimes called lateral gene transfer (LGT), was found to be common (see Denyse O'Leary's article last year, "Horizontal Gene Transfer: Sorry, Darwin, It's Not Your Evolution Any More"). HGT doesn't just complicate efforts to construct phylogenetic trees, she says; "because where HGT is in play, there just isn't a tree of life." In another Evolution News article, Paul Nelson cites Woese, Koonin and other evolutionists going out on a limb to dispute the existence of a universal tree of life -- at least when it comes to the origin of the three kingdoms of microbes.
The second wave involved plants. As far back as 1949, Pennisi says, it was a radical idea to suggest that plant species shared genes via hybridization. Botanists grew to accept the idea, but zoologists resisted it:
In 1949, botanist Edgar Anderson suggested that plants could take on genes from other species through hybridization and back crosses, where the hybrid mates with the parent species. He based this then-radical proposal on genetic crosses and morphological studies of flowering plants and ferns suggesting mixtures of genes from different species in individual genomes. Five years later, with fellow botanist G. Ledyard Stebbins, he argued such gene exchange could lead to new plant species. Their ideas quickly hit home with other plant researchers, but not with zoologists. "There was a very different conventional view in botany than in zoology," Rieseberg says.
Now, the third wave is encompassing the rest of biology: animals. (This wave hits close to home, involving as it does the human lineage.) Starting in the 1990s, zoologists began seeing hybridization as more than a breeder's trick. Pennisi gives three examples of the growing realization that natural hybridization contributes to speciation in animals, too.
Darwin's finches: Peter and Rosemary Grant witnessed a hybrid finch establishing its own population, with its own phenotype, in its own ecological niche. Pennisi tells the story of "Big Bird" in a separate Science Magazine article.
Butterflies: James Mallet's work on Ecuadorian butterflies a decade ago, borrowing on earlier work by Larry Gilbert, proved that more than 30% of Heliconius species formed hybrids, "swapping wing patterns and sometimes generating entirely new ones."
Neandertals: "In 2010, a comparison between the genomes of a Neandertal and people today settled what anthropologists and geneticists had debated for decades: Our ancestors had indeed mated with their archaic cousins, producing hybrid children," Pennisi says in the lead story. "They, in turn, had mated with other modern humans, leaving their distant descendants -- us -- with a permanent Neandertal legacy. Not long afterward, DNA from another archaic human population, the Denisovans, also showed up in the modern human genome, telling a similar story."
Finding hybridization in the human lineage "created a shock wave," Pennisi says. She quotes Malcolm Arnold whose imagination was captured by this important but long overlooked aspect of inheritance. "That genomic information overturned the assumption that everyone had." Pennisi helps us consider the implications for evolutionary theory:
The techniques that revealed the Neandertal and Denisovan legacy in our own genome are now making it possible to peer into the genomic histories of many organisms to check for interbreeding. The result: "Almost every genome study where people use sensitive techniques for detecting hybridization, we find [it] -- we are finding hybridization events where no one expected them," says Loren Reiseberg, an evolutionary biologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
All these data belie the common idea that animal species can't hybridize or, if they do, will produce inferior or infertile offspring -- think mules. Such reproductive isolation is part of the classic definition of a species. But many animals, it is now clear, violate that rule: Not only do they mate with related species, but hybrid descendants are fertile enough to contribute DNA back to a parental species -- a process called introgression.
The revolution was slow in coming till rapid genomic sequencing techniques became available. Now, with a plenitude of sequences published, what biologists had come to accept in microbes is forcing them to reconsider what they thought they knew about evolution for the entire tree of life. Pennisi all but announces the revolution:
Biologists long ago accepted that microbes can swap DNA, and they are now coming to terms with rampant gene flow among more complex creatures. "A large percent of the genome is free to move around," notes Chris Jiggins, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. This "really challenges our concept of what a species is." As a result, where biologists once envisioned a tree of life, its branches forever distinct, many now see an interconnected web.
Hybridization, says Mallet, "has become big news and there's no escaping it."
The tree metaphor is being replaced with a net or web. That's the point where Pennisi describes Ernst Mayr, Darwin's paramount tree gardener, hyperventilating in his grave. In a new world of rampant hybridization and introgression, what is to become of neo-Darwinism? Pennisi gives a glimpse of the implications, hinting at a revolutionary new view of the origin of species. Putting a happy face on the revolution, she ends this way:
The Grants believe that complete reproductive isolation is outdated as a definition of a species. They have speculated that when a species is no longer capable of exchanging genes with any other species, it loses evolutionary potential and may become more prone to extinction.
This idea has yet to be proven, and even Mallet concedes that biologists don't fully understand how hybridization and introgression drive evolution -- or how to reconcile these processes with the traditional picture of species diversifying and diverging over time. Yet for him and for others, these are heady times. "It's the world of hybrids," Rieseberg says. "And that's wonderful."
It will certainly be wonderful for intelligent design theorists, but it's hard to see how Darwinians will cope with the revolution. Why? Because HGT and hybridization involve the shuffling of pre-existing genetic information, not the origin of new genetic information. Information isn't emerging by accidental mutations; it is being shared in a biological World Wide Web! Pennisi suggests this may be advantageous:
As examples of hybridization have multiplied, so has evidence that, at least in nature, swapping DNA has its advantages. When one toxic butterfly species acquires a gene for warning coloration from another toxic species, both species benefit, as a single encounter with either species is now enough to teach predators to avoid both. Among canids, interbreeding with domestic dogs has given wolves in North America a variant of the gene for an immune protein called Î’-defensin. The variant gives wolf-dog hybrids and their descendants a distinctive black pelt and better resistance to canine distemper, Wayne says. In Asia, wolf-dog matings may have helped Tibetan mastiffs cope with the thin air at high altitudes. And interspecies gene flow has apparently allowed insecticide resistance to spread among malaria-carrying mosquitoes and the black flies that transmit river blindness.
In each case, the beneficial genetic changes unfolded faster than they would have by the normal process of mutation, which often changes DNA just one base at a time. Given the ability of hybridization and introgression to speed adaptive changes, says Baird, "closing that door [with reproductive isolation] is not necessarily going to be a good thing for your long-term survival."
Think of the possibilities for design theorists. We can see strategies for robustness with information sharing, allowing animals to survive environmental perturbations or recharge damaged genomes, for instance. Indeed, all kinds of "wonderful" possibilities open up for exploring design when information sharing is available in the explanatory toolkit. New vistas for explaining symbioses, ecosystems, and variability emerge. Could some apparent "innovations" be loans from other species? How can the information-sharing biosphere inform practical applications for medicine?
In the wonderful new "world of hybrids," ID advocates can take the lead, breathing new life into biological explanations, while the neo-Darwinists hyperventilate to delay the inevitable.
David Klinghoffer
We may be on the third wave of a scientific revolution in biology. It may be so big, the story "no doubt has Ernst Mayr hyperventilating in his grave," thinks evolutionary biologist Nora Besansky of the University of Notre Dame. Mayr influenced a generation of evolutionists. Is one of his core Darwinian concepts unraveling? In Science Magazine, Elizabeth Pennisi sets the stage:
Most of those who studied animals had instead bought into the argument by the famous mid-20th century evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr that the formation of a new species requires reproductive isolation. Mayr and his contemporaries thought that the offspring of any hybrids would be less fit or even infertile, and would not persist. To be sure, captive animals could be interbred: Breeders crossed the African serval cat with domestic cats to produce the Savannah cat, and the Asian leopard cat with domestic breeds to produce the Bengal cat. There's even a "liger," the result of a zoo mating of a tiger and a lion. But like male mules, male ligers are sterile, supporting the notion that in nature, hybridization is mostly a dead end. [Emphasis added.]
Indeed, the biological concept of "species" practically requires reproductive isolation. Hybridization, while known since ancient civilizations bred mules, seems unnatural and rare. It played little role in classical Darwinian theory, which relies on emergent variation and selection for the origin of species. According to hybridization specialist Eugene M. McCarthy in "Darwin's Assessment of Hybridization," "Darwin did come to attribute more significance to hybridization in his later years," but it never gained significant traction in any edition of the Origin, his most widely read book. "Certainly such ideas were never canonized among the dogmas of neo-Darwinian theory."
For Darwin's branching tree-of-life diagram to work, innovations must be passed along in ancestor-descendent relationships, moving vertically up the branches over time by inheritance of chance mutations. Hybrids interfere with this picture by allowing branches to share genetic information horizontally all at once. And if the branches can re-join by back-crossing, the tree metaphor becomes more like a net. Pennisi understands the challenge to Darwinism in her title, "Shaking Up the Tree of Life," when she says, "Species were once thought to keep to themselves. Now, hybrids are turning up everywhere, challenging evolutionary theory."
The revolution has come in three waves. The first involved microbes, when horizontal gene transfer (HGT), sometimes called lateral gene transfer (LGT), was found to be common (see Denyse O'Leary's article last year, "Horizontal Gene Transfer: Sorry, Darwin, It's Not Your Evolution Any More"). HGT doesn't just complicate efforts to construct phylogenetic trees, she says; "because where HGT is in play, there just isn't a tree of life." In another Evolution News article, Paul Nelson cites Woese, Koonin and other evolutionists going out on a limb to dispute the existence of a universal tree of life -- at least when it comes to the origin of the three kingdoms of microbes.
The second wave involved plants. As far back as 1949, Pennisi says, it was a radical idea to suggest that plant species shared genes via hybridization. Botanists grew to accept the idea, but zoologists resisted it:
In 1949, botanist Edgar Anderson suggested that plants could take on genes from other species through hybridization and back crosses, where the hybrid mates with the parent species. He based this then-radical proposal on genetic crosses and morphological studies of flowering plants and ferns suggesting mixtures of genes from different species in individual genomes. Five years later, with fellow botanist G. Ledyard Stebbins, he argued such gene exchange could lead to new plant species. Their ideas quickly hit home with other plant researchers, but not with zoologists. "There was a very different conventional view in botany than in zoology," Rieseberg says.
Now, the third wave is encompassing the rest of biology: animals. (This wave hits close to home, involving as it does the human lineage.) Starting in the 1990s, zoologists began seeing hybridization as more than a breeder's trick. Pennisi gives three examples of the growing realization that natural hybridization contributes to speciation in animals, too.
Darwin's finches: Peter and Rosemary Grant witnessed a hybrid finch establishing its own population, with its own phenotype, in its own ecological niche. Pennisi tells the story of "Big Bird" in a separate Science Magazine article.
Butterflies: James Mallet's work on Ecuadorian butterflies a decade ago, borrowing on earlier work by Larry Gilbert, proved that more than 30% of Heliconius species formed hybrids, "swapping wing patterns and sometimes generating entirely new ones."
Neandertals: "In 2010, a comparison between the genomes of a Neandertal and people today settled what anthropologists and geneticists had debated for decades: Our ancestors had indeed mated with their archaic cousins, producing hybrid children," Pennisi says in the lead story. "They, in turn, had mated with other modern humans, leaving their distant descendants -- us -- with a permanent Neandertal legacy. Not long afterward, DNA from another archaic human population, the Denisovans, also showed up in the modern human genome, telling a similar story."
Finding hybridization in the human lineage "created a shock wave," Pennisi says. She quotes Malcolm Arnold whose imagination was captured by this important but long overlooked aspect of inheritance. "That genomic information overturned the assumption that everyone had." Pennisi helps us consider the implications for evolutionary theory:
The techniques that revealed the Neandertal and Denisovan legacy in our own genome are now making it possible to peer into the genomic histories of many organisms to check for interbreeding. The result: "Almost every genome study where people use sensitive techniques for detecting hybridization, we find [it] -- we are finding hybridization events where no one expected them," says Loren Reiseberg, an evolutionary biologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
All these data belie the common idea that animal species can't hybridize or, if they do, will produce inferior or infertile offspring -- think mules. Such reproductive isolation is part of the classic definition of a species. But many animals, it is now clear, violate that rule: Not only do they mate with related species, but hybrid descendants are fertile enough to contribute DNA back to a parental species -- a process called introgression.
The revolution was slow in coming till rapid genomic sequencing techniques became available. Now, with a plenitude of sequences published, what biologists had come to accept in microbes is forcing them to reconsider what they thought they knew about evolution for the entire tree of life. Pennisi all but announces the revolution:
Biologists long ago accepted that microbes can swap DNA, and they are now coming to terms with rampant gene flow among more complex creatures. "A large percent of the genome is free to move around," notes Chris Jiggins, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. This "really challenges our concept of what a species is." As a result, where biologists once envisioned a tree of life, its branches forever distinct, many now see an interconnected web.
Hybridization, says Mallet, "has become big news and there's no escaping it."
The tree metaphor is being replaced with a net or web. That's the point where Pennisi describes Ernst Mayr, Darwin's paramount tree gardener, hyperventilating in his grave. In a new world of rampant hybridization and introgression, what is to become of neo-Darwinism? Pennisi gives a glimpse of the implications, hinting at a revolutionary new view of the origin of species. Putting a happy face on the revolution, she ends this way:
The Grants believe that complete reproductive isolation is outdated as a definition of a species. They have speculated that when a species is no longer capable of exchanging genes with any other species, it loses evolutionary potential and may become more prone to extinction.
This idea has yet to be proven, and even Mallet concedes that biologists don't fully understand how hybridization and introgression drive evolution -- or how to reconcile these processes with the traditional picture of species diversifying and diverging over time. Yet for him and for others, these are heady times. "It's the world of hybrids," Rieseberg says. "And that's wonderful."
It will certainly be wonderful for intelligent design theorists, but it's hard to see how Darwinians will cope with the revolution. Why? Because HGT and hybridization involve the shuffling of pre-existing genetic information, not the origin of new genetic information. Information isn't emerging by accidental mutations; it is being shared in a biological World Wide Web! Pennisi suggests this may be advantageous:
As examples of hybridization have multiplied, so has evidence that, at least in nature, swapping DNA has its advantages. When one toxic butterfly species acquires a gene for warning coloration from another toxic species, both species benefit, as a single encounter with either species is now enough to teach predators to avoid both. Among canids, interbreeding with domestic dogs has given wolves in North America a variant of the gene for an immune protein called Î’-defensin. The variant gives wolf-dog hybrids and their descendants a distinctive black pelt and better resistance to canine distemper, Wayne says. In Asia, wolf-dog matings may have helped Tibetan mastiffs cope with the thin air at high altitudes. And interspecies gene flow has apparently allowed insecticide resistance to spread among malaria-carrying mosquitoes and the black flies that transmit river blindness.
In each case, the beneficial genetic changes unfolded faster than they would have by the normal process of mutation, which often changes DNA just one base at a time. Given the ability of hybridization and introgression to speed adaptive changes, says Baird, "closing that door [with reproductive isolation] is not necessarily going to be a good thing for your long-term survival."
Think of the possibilities for design theorists. We can see strategies for robustness with information sharing, allowing animals to survive environmental perturbations or recharge damaged genomes, for instance. Indeed, all kinds of "wonderful" possibilities open up for exploring design when information sharing is available in the explanatory toolkit. New vistas for explaining symbioses, ecosystems, and variability emerge. Could some apparent "innovations" be loans from other species? How can the information-sharing biosphere inform practical applications for medicine?
In the wonderful new "world of hybrids," ID advocates can take the lead, breathing new life into biological explanations, while the neo-Darwinists hyperventilate to delay the inevitable.
Monday 28 November 2016
On Russia's war on religious liberty III:The Watchtower Society's commentary.
International Experts Discredit Russia’s “Expert Analysis” in Identifying “Extremism”
This is Part 3 of a three-part series based on exclusive interviews with noted scholars of religion, politics, and sociology, as well as experts in Soviet and post-Soviet studies.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—Jehovah’s Witnesses and their literature have been subject to court-appointed analysis by the Center for Sociocultural Expert Studies in Moscow. One study was completed in August 2015 and was used as the basis for an ongoing case against the Witnesses’ New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, while another study is pending.
Highly regarded experts inside and outside of Russia debunk these studies. One such scholar, Dr. Mark R. Elliott, founding editor of the East-West Church and Ministry Report, observes: “State-approved ‘expert’ witnesses on religious questions, including those who disapproved Jehovah’s Witnesses’ scriptures, typically lack expertise and credibility as they issue ill-founded ‘opinions’ on matters of faith.”
Specifically addressing the Center for Sociocultural Expert Studies, Dr. Roman Lunkin, head of the Center for Religion and Society at the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, notes that “not one of the experts has a degree in religious studies and they are not even familiar with the writings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their analysis included quotes that were taken from information provided by the Irenaeus of Lyon Centre, a radical Orthodox anti-cult organization known for opposing Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as many other religions and denominations.”
“Unfortunately, I would have to agree with Dr. Lunkin,” states Dr. Ekaterina Elbakyan, professor of sociology and management of social processes at the Moscow Academy of Labor and Social Relations. “It is true that in Russia today religious expert studies are often performed by people who are not specialists, and are made-to-order, so to speak, where an expert is not free to state his true findings.”
Dr. Elbakyan, who participated in two trials in Taganrog and was present as a specialist-expert in the appellate court in Rostov-on-Don, further explains: “I saw with my own eyes the video material on the basis of which Jehovah’s Witnesses were charged with extremism. Twice I gave a detailed commentary in court explaining that this was a typical Christian religious service and had nothing to do with extremism, but the court did not take the expert opinion into consideration. It is impossible not to see this as a clear and systematic trend toward religious discrimination. As long as this trend continues, there are, of course, no guarantees that believers will cease to be classified as ‘extremists’ because of their beliefs.”
International: David A. Semonian, Office of Public Information, 1-718-560-5000
Russia: Yaroslav Sivulskiy, 7-812-702-2691
This is Part 3 of a three-part series based on exclusive interviews with noted scholars of religion, politics, and sociology, as well as experts in Soviet and post-Soviet studies.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—Jehovah’s Witnesses and their literature have been subject to court-appointed analysis by the Center for Sociocultural Expert Studies in Moscow. One study was completed in August 2015 and was used as the basis for an ongoing case against the Witnesses’ New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, while another study is pending.
Highly regarded experts inside and outside of Russia debunk these studies. One such scholar, Dr. Mark R. Elliott, founding editor of the East-West Church and Ministry Report, observes: “State-approved ‘expert’ witnesses on religious questions, including those who disapproved Jehovah’s Witnesses’ scriptures, typically lack expertise and credibility as they issue ill-founded ‘opinions’ on matters of faith.”
Specifically addressing the Center for Sociocultural Expert Studies, Dr. Roman Lunkin, head of the Center for Religion and Society at the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, notes that “not one of the experts has a degree in religious studies and they are not even familiar with the writings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their analysis included quotes that were taken from information provided by the Irenaeus of Lyon Centre, a radical Orthodox anti-cult organization known for opposing Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as many other religions and denominations.”
“Unfortunately, I would have to agree with Dr. Lunkin,” states Dr. Ekaterina Elbakyan, professor of sociology and management of social processes at the Moscow Academy of Labor and Social Relations. “It is true that in Russia today religious expert studies are often performed by people who are not specialists, and are made-to-order, so to speak, where an expert is not free to state his true findings.”
Dr. Elbakyan, who participated in two trials in Taganrog and was present as a specialist-expert in the appellate court in Rostov-on-Don, further explains: “I saw with my own eyes the video material on the basis of which Jehovah’s Witnesses were charged with extremism. Twice I gave a detailed commentary in court explaining that this was a typical Christian religious service and had nothing to do with extremism, but the court did not take the expert opinion into consideration. It is impossible not to see this as a clear and systematic trend toward religious discrimination. As long as this trend continues, there are, of course, no guarantees that believers will cease to be classified as ‘extremists’ because of their beliefs.”
International: David A. Semonian, Office of Public Information, 1-718-560-5000
Russia: Yaroslav Sivulskiy, 7-812-702-2691
Sub-optimal design or sub-optimal analysis?
Shoddy Engineering or Intelligent Design? Case of the Mouse's Eye
Richard Sternberg
We often hear from Darwinians that the biological world is replete with examples of shoddy engineering, or, as they prefer to put it, bad design. One such case of really poor construction is the inverted retina of the vertebrate eye. As we all know, the retina of our eyes is configured all wrong because the cells that gather photons, the rod photoreceptors, are behind two other tissue layers. Light first strikes the ganglion cells and then passes by or through the bipolar cells before reaching the rod photoreceptors. Surely, a child could have arranged the system better -- so they tell us.
The problem with this story of supposed unintelligent design is that it is long on anthropomorphisms and short on evidence. Consider nocturnal mammals. Night vision for, say, a mouse is no small feat. Light intensities during night can be a million times less than those of the day, so the rod cells must be optimized -- yes, optimized -- to capture even the few stray photons that strike them. Given the backwards organization of the mouse's retina, how is this scavenging of light accomplished? Part of the solution is that the ganglion and bipolar cell layers are thinner in mammals that are nocturnal. But other optimizations must also occur. Enter the cell nucleus and "junk" DNA.
Only around 1.5 percent of mammalian DNA encodes proteins. Since it has become lore to equate protein-coding regions of the genome with "genes" and "information," the remaining approximately 98.5 percent of DNA has been dismissed as junk. Yet, for what is purported to be mere genetic gibberish, it is strikingly ordered along the length of the chromosome. Like the barcodes on consumer items that we are all familiar with, each chromosome has a particular banding pattern. This pattern reflects how different types of DNA sequences are linearly distributed. The "core" of a mammalian chromosome, the centromere, and the genomic segments that frame it largely consist of long tracks of species-specific repetitive elements -- these areas give rise to "C-bands" after a chemical stain has been applied. Then, alternating along the chromosome arms are two other kinds of bands that appear after different staining procedures. One called "R-bands" is rich in protein-coding genes and a particular class of retrotransposon called SINEs (for Short Interspersed Nuclear Elements). SINE sequence families are restricted to certain taxonomic groups. The other is termed "G-bands" and it has a high concentration of another class of retrotransposon called LINEs (for Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements), that can also be used to distinguish between species. Finally, the ends of the chromosome, telomeres, are comprised of a completely different set of repetitive DNA sequences.
In general, C-bands and G-bands are complexed with proteins and RNAs to give a more compact organization called heterochromatin, whereas R-bands have a more open conformation referred to as euchromatin.
Why bother with such details? Well, each of these chromosome bands has a preferred location in the cell nucleus. Open any good textbook on mammalian anatomy and you will note that cell types can often be distinguished by the shape and size of the nucleus, as well as the positions of euchromatin and heterochromatin in that organelle. Nevertheless, most cell nuclei follow a general rule where euchromatin is located in the interior, in various compartments that are dense with transcription factories, RNA processing machinery, and many other components. Heterochromatin, on the other hand, is found mainly around the periphery of the nucleus. A striking exception to this principle is found in the nuclei of rod cells in nocturnal mammals.
Reporting in the journal Cell, Irina Solovei and coworkers have just discovered that, in contrast to the nucleus organization seen in ganglion and bipolar cells of the retina, a remarkable inversion of chromosome band localities occurs in the rod photoreceptors of mammals with night vision (Solovei I, Kreysing M, Lanctôt C, Kösem S, Peichl L, Cremer T, Guck J, Joffe B. 2009. "Nuclear Architecture of Rod Photoreceptor Cells Adapts to Vision in Mammalian Evolution." Cell 137(2): 356-368). First, the C-bands of all the chromosomes including the centromere coalesce in the center of the nucleus to produce a dense chromocenter. Keep in mind that the DNA backbone of this chromocenter in different mammals is repetitive and highly species-specific. Second, a shell of LINE-rich G-band sequences surrounds the C-bands. Finally, the R-bands including all examined protein-coding genes are placed next to the nuclear envelope. The nucleus of this cell type is also smaller so as to make the pattern more compact. This ordered movement of billions of basepairs according to their "barcode status" begins in the rod photoreceptor cells at birth, at least in the mouse, and continues for weeks and months.
Why the elaborate repositioning of so much "junk" DNA in the rod cells of nocturnal mammals? The answer is optics. A central cluster of chromocenters surrounded by a layer of LINE-dense heterochromatin enables the nucleus to be a converging lens for photons, so that the latter can pass without hindrance to the rod outer segments that sense light. In other words, the genome regions with the highest refractive index -- undoubtedly enhanced by the proteins bound to the repetitive DNA -- are concentrated in the interior, followed by the sequences with the next highest level of refractivity, to prevent against the scattering of light. The nuclear genome is thus transformed into an optical device that is designed to assist in the capturing of photons. This chromatin-based convex (focusing) lens is so well constructed that it still works when lattices of rod cells are made to be disordered. Normal cell nuclei actually scatter light.
So the next time someone tells you that it "strains credulity" to think that more than a few pieces of "junk DNA" could be functional in the cell -- that the data only point to the lack of design and suboptimality -- remind them of the rod cell nuclei of the humble mouse.
Trying to reduce the irreducible?
Refuting Behe's Critics, Meyer Gives Four Reasons the Flagellum Predates the Type III Secretory System
David Klinghoffer
Michael Behe's signature argument in Darwin's Black Box
would be seriously bruised if it turned out the bacterial flagellar motor had a simpler evolutionary antecedent. Critics of intelligent design thought they had identified such a precursor in the form of the Type III Secretory System, found in some bacteria.
Behe and others have since shown why it's far likelier that the flagellum is the precursor, thus leaving Dr. Behe's argument intact. In response, the critics either simply repeat their claim as if it hadn't been refuted, or they go silent -- an implicit admission they were wrong, and Behe was right.
How exactly do we know the flagellum came first? In a 12-minute video discussion, Stephen Meyer explains that we know this for four good and independent reasons. Watch for yourself, and if you're still not convinced, let me know why not. (Reach me by clicking on the orange EMAIL US button at the top of this page.)
Mike Behe's case for ID from irreducible complexity has stood the test of fire by scientists and others whose picture of reality depends on denying that biology bears evidence of design. We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Darwin's Black Box with a new hour-long documentary written and directed by John West, Revolutionary: Michael Behe and the Mystery of Molecular Machines
. Get your copy of Revolutionary, on DVD or Blu-ray, today.
Crossing the floor?
Peppered Moth: How Evolution's Poster Child Became the Rebuttal
Cornelius Hunter
It has been called one of the best examples of evolution observed in the wild -- light colored peppered moths (Biston betularia) became dark colored in response to 19th century industrial pollution darkening the birch trees in their environment. Evolving a darker color helped camouflage the moths, and keep them hidden from predatory birds. And more recently, air pollution reductions lightened the environment and with it, the moths also began to revert to their lighter color.
Proof of evolution, case closed, right? From popular presentations and museum exhibits, to textbooks and scientific papers, evolutionists have relentlessly pounded home the peppered moth as an undeniable confirmation of Darwin's theory in action. There's only one problem: All of this ignores the science.
There are two main problems with peppered moths story. First, changing colors is hardly a pathway leading to the kinds of massive biological change evolution requires. It is not as though a change in the peppered moth coloration is any kind of evidence for how the moths evolved, or how any other species, for that matter, could have evolved.
In fact changing the color of a moth not only fails to show how species could evolve, it also fails to show how any biological design could evolve. The peppered moth case doesn't show how metabolism, the central nervous system, bones, red blood cells, or any other biological wonder could have arisen by evolution's random mutations coupled with natural selection.
The moths were already there. Their wings were already there. Different colors were already there. The changing of color in moth populations, while certainly a good thing for the moths, is hardly an example of evolution.
Second, research strongly suggests that the cause of the darkening, at the molecular level, is an enormous genetic insertion. In other words, rather than a nucleotide, in a gene, mutating to one of the other three nucleotides, as you learned in your high school biology class, instead what has been found is an insertion of a stretch of more than 20,000 nucleotides. That long inserted segment consists of a shorter segment (about 9,000 nucleotides) repeated about two and one-third times.
Also, the insertion point is not in a DNA coding sequence, but in an intervening region (intron), which have been considered to be "junk DNA" in the past.
This observed mutation (the insertion of a long sequence of DNA into an intron), is much more complicated than a single point mutation. First, there is no change in the gene's protein product. The mutating of the protein sequence was the whole idea behind evolution: DNA mutations which lead to changes in a protein can lead to a phenotype change with fitness improvement, and there would be subject to natural selection.
That is not what we are seeing in the much celebrated peppered moth example. The DNA mutation is much more complicated (~20,000 nucleotides inserted), and the fact it was inserted into an intron suggests that additional molecular and cellular mechanisms are required for the coloration change to occur.
None of this fits evolutionary theory.
For example, evolutionary theory requires that the needed random DNA mutational change is reasonably likely to occur. Given the moth's effective population size, the moth's generation time period, and the complexity of the mutation, the needed mutation is not likely to occur. Evolution would have to be inserting segments of DNA with (i) different sequences, at (ii) different locations, within the moth genome. This is an enormous space of mutational possibilities to search through.
It doesn't add up. Evolution does not have the resources in terms of time and effective population size to come anywhere close to searching this astronomical mutational space. It's not going to happen.
A much more likely explanation, and one that has been found to be true in so many other cases of adaptation (in spite of evolutionary pushback), is that the peppered moth coloration change was directed. The environmental change and challenge somehow caused the peppered moth to modify its color. This suggests there are preprogrammed, directed adaptation mechanisms, already in place that are ready to respond to future, potential, environmental changes, which might never occur.
Far from an evidence for evolution, this is evidence against evolution.
So there are at least two major problems with what is celebrated as a key evidence for evolution in action. First, it comes nowhere close to the type of change evolution needs, and the details of the change demonstrate that it is not evolutionary to begin with.
Saturday 26 November 2016
The Watchtower Society's commentary on the passover.
PASSOVER
Passover (Heb., peʹsach; Gr., paʹskha) was instituted the evening preceding the Exodus from Egypt. The first Passover was observed about the time of full moon, on the 14th day of Abib (later called Nisan) in the year 1513 B.C.E. This was thereafter to be celebrated annually. (Ex 12:17-20, 24-27) Abib (Nisan) falls within the months March-April of the Gregorian calendar. Passover was followed by seven days of the Festival of Unfermented Cakes, Nisan 15-21. Passover commemorates the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and the ‘passing over’ of their firstborn when Jehovah destroyed the firstborn of Egypt. Seasonally, it fell at the beginning of the barley harvest.—Ex 12:14, 24-47; Le 23:10.
Passover was a memorial celebration; therefore the Scriptural command was: “And it must occur that when your sons say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ then you must say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the passover to Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he plagued the Egyptians, but he delivered our houses.’”—Ex 12:26, 27.
Since the Jews reckoned the day as starting after sundown and ending the next day at sundown, Nisan 14 would begin after sundown. It would be in the evening after Nisan 13 concluded that the Passover would be observed. Since the Bible definitely states that Christ is the Passover sacrifice (1Co 5:7) and that he observed the Passover meal the evening before he was put to death, the date of his death would be Nisan 14, not Nisan 15, in order to fulfill accurately the time feature of the type, or shadow, provided in the Law.—Heb 10:1.
Laws Governing Its Observance. Each household was to choose a male sheep or goat that was sound and a year old. It was taken into the house on the 10th day of the month Abib and kept until the 14th, and then it was slaughtered and its blood was splashed with a bunch of hyssop on the doorposts and the upper part of the doorway of the dwelling in which they were to eat it (not on the threshold where the blood would be trampled on).
The lamb (or goat) was slaughtered, skinned, its interior parts cleansed and replaced, and it was roasted whole, well-done, with no bones broken. (2Ch 35:11; Nu 9:12) If the household was too small to consume the whole animal, then it was to be shared with a neighbor household and eaten that same night. Anything left over was to be burned before morning. (Ex 12:10; 34:25) It was eaten with unfermented cakes, “the bread of affliction,” and with bitter greens, for their life had been bitter under slavery.—Ex 1:14; 12:1-11, 29, 34; De 16:3.
What is meant by the expression “between the two evenings”?
The Israelites measured their day from sundown to sundown. So Passover day would begin at sundown at the end of the 13th day of Abib (Nisan). The animal was to be slaughtered “between the two evenings.” (Ex 12:6) There are differences of opinion as to the exact time meant. According to some scholars, as well as the Karaite Jews and Samaritans, this is the time between sunset and deep twilight. On the other hand, the Pharisees and the Rabbinists considered the first evening to be when the sun began to descend and the second evening to be the real sunset. Due to this latter view the rabbis hold that the lamb was slaughtered in the latter part of the 14th, not at its start, and therefore that the Passover meal was actually eaten on Nisan 15.
On this point Professors Keil and Delitzsch say: “Different opinions have prevailed among the Jews from a very early date as to the precise time intended. Aben Ezra agrees with the Caraites and Samaritans in taking the first evening to be the time when the sun sinks below the horizon, and the second the time of total darkness; in which case, ‘between the two evenings’ would be from 6 o’clock to 7.20. . . . According to the rabbinical idea, the time when the sun began to descend, viz. from 3 to 5 o’clock, was the first evening, and sunset the second; so that ‘between the two evenings’ was from 3 to 6 o’clock. Modern expositors have very properly decided in favour of the view held by Aben Ezra and the custom adopted by the Caraites and Samaritans.”—Commentary on the Old Testament, 1973, Vol. I, The Second Book of Moses, p. 12; see DAY.
From the foregoing, and particularly in view of such texts as Exodus 12:17, 18, Leviticus 23:5-7, and Deuteronomy 16:6, 7, the weight of evidence points to the application of the expression “between the two evenings” to the time between sunset and dark. This would mean that the Passover meal was eaten well after sundown on Nisan 14, for it took considerable time to slaughter, skin, and roast the animal thoroughly. Deuteronomy 16:6 commands: “You should sacrifice the passover in the evening as soon as the sun sets.” Jesus and his apostles observed the Passover meal “after evening had fallen.” (Mr 14:17; Mt 26:20) Judas went out immediately after the Passover observance, “And it was night.” (Joh 13:30) When Jesus observed the Passover with his 12 apostles, there must have been no little conversation; then, too, some time would have been occupied by Jesus in washing the apostles’ feet. (Joh 13:2-5) Hence, the institution of the Lord’s Evening Meal certainly took place quite late in the evening.—See LORD’S EVENING MEAL.
At the Passover in Egypt, the head of the family was responsible for the slaying of the lamb (or goat) at each home, and all were to stay inside the house to avoid being slain by the angel. The partakers ate in a standing position, their hips girded, staff in hand, sandals on so as to be ready for a long journey over rough ground (whereas they often did their daily work barefoot). At midnight all the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain, but the angel passed over the houses on which the blood had been spattered. (Ex 12:11, 23) Every Egyptian household in which there was a firstborn male was affected, from the house of Pharaoh himself to the firstborn of the prisoner. It was not the head of the house, even though he may have been a firstborn, but was any male firstborn in the household under the head, as well as the male firstborn of animals, that was slain.—Ex 12:29, 30; see FIRSTBORN, FIRSTLING.
The Ten Plagues upon Egypt all proved to be a judgment against the gods of Egypt, especially the tenth, the death of the firstborn. (Ex 12:12) For the ram (male sheep) was sacred to the god Ra, so that splashing the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorways would be blasphemy in the eyes of the Egyptians. Also, the bull was sacred, and the destruction of the firstborn of the bulls would be a blow to the god Osiris. Pharaoh himself was venerated as a son of Ra. The death of Pharaoh’s own firstborn would thus show the impotence of both Ra and Pharaoh.
In the Wilderness and the Promised Land. Only one Passover celebration in the wilderness is mentioned. (Nu 9:1-14) The keeping of the Passover during the wilderness journey likely was limited, for two reasons: (1) Jehovah’s original instructions were that it must be kept when they reached the Promised Land. (Ex 12:25; 13:5) (2) Those born in the wilderness had not been circumcised (Jos 5:5), whereas all male partakers of Passover had to be circumcised.—Ex 12:45-49.
Record of Passovers Observed. The Hebrew Scriptures give direct accounts of the Passover (1) in Egypt (Ex 12); (2) in the wilderness at Sinai, Nisan 14, 1512 B.C.E. (Nu 9); (3) when they reached the Promised Land, at Gilgal and after the circumcision of the males, 1473 B.C.E. (Jos 5); (4) at the time that Hezekiah restored true worship (2Ch 30); (5) the Passover of Josiah (2Ch 35); and (6) the celebration by Israel after the return from Babylonian exile (Ezr 6). (Also, mention is made of Passovers held in Samuel’s day and during the days of the kings, at 2Ch 35:18.) After the Israelites were settled in the land, the Passover festival was observed “in the place that Jehovah will choose to have his name reside,” instead of in each home or in the various cities. In time, the chosen place came to be Jerusalem.—De 16:1-8.
Accretions. After Israel had settled in the Promised Land, certain changes were made and various accretions came about in observing the Passover. They no longer partook of the feast in a standing position, or equipped for a journey, for they were then in the land that God had given them. The first-century celebrants customarily ate it while lying on their left side, with the head resting on the left hand. This explains how one of Jesus’ disciples could be “reclining in front of Jesus’ bosom.” (Joh 13:23) Wine was not used at the Passover in Egypt nor was there any command given by Jehovah for its use with the festival. This practice was introduced later on. Jesus did not condemn the use of wine with the meal, but he drank wine with his apostles and afterward offered a cup for them to drink as he introduced the Lord’s Evening Meal, the Memorial.—Lu 22:15-18, 20.
According to traditional Jewish sources, red wine was used and four cups were handed around, although the service was not restricted to four cups. Psalms 113 to 118 were sung during the meal, concluding with Psalm 118. It is likely that it was one of these psalms that Jesus and his apostles sang in concluding the Lord’s Evening Meal.—Mt 26:30.
Customs at Passover Time. Great preparations were made in Jerusalem when the festival was due, as it was a requirement of the Law that every male Israelite and every male of the circumcised alien residents observe the Passover. (Nu 9:9-14) This meant that vast numbers would be making the journey to the city for some days in advance. They would come before the Passover in order to cleanse themselves ceremonially. (Joh 11:55) It is said that men were sent out about a month early to prepare the bridges and put the roads in good order for the convenience of the pilgrims. Since contact with a dead body rendered a person unclean, special precautions were taken to protect the traveler. As it was a practice to bury persons in the open field, if they died there, the graves were made conspicuous by being whitened a month ahead. (The Temple, by A. Edersheim, 1874, pp. 184, 185) This supplies background for Jesus’ words to the scribes and Pharisees, that they resembled “whitewashed graves.”—Mt 23:27.
Accommodations were made available in the homes for those coming to Jerusalem for Passover observance. In an Oriental home all the rooms could be slept in, and several persons could be accommodated in one room. Also, the flat roof of the house could be used. Added to this is the fact that numbers of the celebrants obtained accommodations outside the city walls, especially at Bethphage and Bethany, two villages on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.—Mr 11:1; 14:3.
Questions as to Time Order. It was a question of defilement that gave rise to the words: “They themselves did not enter into the governor’s palace, that they might not get defiled but might eat the passover.” (Joh 18:28) These Jews considered it a defilement to enter into a Gentile dwelling. (Ac 10:28) This statement was made, however, “early in the day,” hence after the Passover meal had taken place. It is to be noted that at this time the entire period, including Passover day and the Festival of Unfermented Cakes that followed, was at times referred to as “Passover.” In the light of this fact, Alfred Edersheim offers the following explanation: A voluntary peace offering was made on Passover and another, a compulsory one, on the next day, Nisan 15, the first day of the Festival of Unfermented Cakes. It was this second offering that the Jews were afraid they might not be able to eat if they contracted defilement in the judgment hall of Pilate.—The Temple, 1874, pp. 186, 187.
“The first day of the unfermented cakes.” A question also arises in connection with the statement at Matthew 26:17: “On the first day of the unfermented cakes the disciples came up to Jesus, saying: ‘Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the passover?’”
The expression “the first day” here could be rendered “the day before.” Concerning the use of the Greek word here translated “first,” a footnote on Matthew 26:17 in the New World Translation says: “Or, ‘On the day before.’ This rendering of the Gr. word [proʹtos] followed by the genitive case of the next word agrees with the sense and rendering of a like construction in Joh 1:15, 30, namely, ‘he existed before [proʹtos] me.’” According to Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, “[proʹtos] is sts. [sometimes] used where we should expect [proʹte·ros (meaning ‘former, earlier’)].” (Revised by H. Jones, Oxford, 1968, p. 1535) At this time, Passover day had come to be generally considered as the first day of the Festival of Unfermented Cakes. So, then, the original Greek, harmonized with Jewish custom, allows for the question to have been asked of Jesus on the day before Passover.
“Preparation.” At John 19:14, the apostle John, in the midst of his description of the final part of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, says: “Now it was preparation of the passover; it was about the sixth hour [of the daytime, between 11:00 a.m. and noon].” This, of course, was after the time of the Passover meal, which had been eaten the night before. Similar expressions are found at verses 31 and 42. Here the Greek word pa·ra·skeu·eʹ is translated “preparation.” This word seems to mark, not the day preceding Nisan 14, but the day preceding the weekly Sabbath, which, in this instance, was “a great one,” namely, not only a Sabbath by virtue of being Nisan 15, the first day of the actual Festival of Unfermented Cakes, but also a weekly Sabbath. This is understandable, since, as already stated, “Passover” was sometimes used to refer to the entire festival.—Joh 19:31; see PREPARATION.
Prophetic Significance. The apostle Paul, in urging Christians to live clean lives, attributes pictorial significance to the Passover. He says: “For, indeed, Christ our passover has been sacrificed.” (1Co 5:7) Here he likens Christ Jesus to the Passover lamb. John the Baptizer pointed to Jesus, saying: “See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh 1:29) John may have had in mind the Passover lamb, or he could have been thinking of the male sheep that Abraham offered up instead of his own son Isaac or of the male lamb that was offered up upon God’s altar at Jerusalem each morning and evening.—Ge 22:13; Ex 29:38-42.
Certain features of the Passover observance were fulfilled by Jesus. One fulfillment lies in the fact that the blood on the houses in Egypt delivered the firstborn from destruction at the hands of the destroying angel. Paul speaks of anointed Christians as the congregation of the firstborn (Heb 12:23), and of Christ as their deliverer through his blood. (1Th 1:10; Eph 1:7) No bones were to be broken in the Passover lamb. It had been prophesied that none of Jesus’ bones would be broken, and this was fulfilled at his death. (Ps 34:20; Joh 19:36) Thus the Passover kept by the Jews for centuries was one of those things in which the Law provided a shadow of the things to come and pointed to Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God.”—Heb 10:1; Joh 1:29.
Passover (Heb., peʹsach; Gr., paʹskha) was instituted the evening preceding the Exodus from Egypt. The first Passover was observed about the time of full moon, on the 14th day of Abib (later called Nisan) in the year 1513 B.C.E. This was thereafter to be celebrated annually. (Ex 12:17-20, 24-27) Abib (Nisan) falls within the months March-April of the Gregorian calendar. Passover was followed by seven days of the Festival of Unfermented Cakes, Nisan 15-21. Passover commemorates the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and the ‘passing over’ of their firstborn when Jehovah destroyed the firstborn of Egypt. Seasonally, it fell at the beginning of the barley harvest.—Ex 12:14, 24-47; Le 23:10.
Passover was a memorial celebration; therefore the Scriptural command was: “And it must occur that when your sons say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ then you must say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the passover to Jehovah, who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he plagued the Egyptians, but he delivered our houses.’”—Ex 12:26, 27.
Since the Jews reckoned the day as starting after sundown and ending the next day at sundown, Nisan 14 would begin after sundown. It would be in the evening after Nisan 13 concluded that the Passover would be observed. Since the Bible definitely states that Christ is the Passover sacrifice (1Co 5:7) and that he observed the Passover meal the evening before he was put to death, the date of his death would be Nisan 14, not Nisan 15, in order to fulfill accurately the time feature of the type, or shadow, provided in the Law.—Heb 10:1.
Laws Governing Its Observance. Each household was to choose a male sheep or goat that was sound and a year old. It was taken into the house on the 10th day of the month Abib and kept until the 14th, and then it was slaughtered and its blood was splashed with a bunch of hyssop on the doorposts and the upper part of the doorway of the dwelling in which they were to eat it (not on the threshold where the blood would be trampled on).
The lamb (or goat) was slaughtered, skinned, its interior parts cleansed and replaced, and it was roasted whole, well-done, with no bones broken. (2Ch 35:11; Nu 9:12) If the household was too small to consume the whole animal, then it was to be shared with a neighbor household and eaten that same night. Anything left over was to be burned before morning. (Ex 12:10; 34:25) It was eaten with unfermented cakes, “the bread of affliction,” and with bitter greens, for their life had been bitter under slavery.—Ex 1:14; 12:1-11, 29, 34; De 16:3.
What is meant by the expression “between the two evenings”?
The Israelites measured their day from sundown to sundown. So Passover day would begin at sundown at the end of the 13th day of Abib (Nisan). The animal was to be slaughtered “between the two evenings.” (Ex 12:6) There are differences of opinion as to the exact time meant. According to some scholars, as well as the Karaite Jews and Samaritans, this is the time between sunset and deep twilight. On the other hand, the Pharisees and the Rabbinists considered the first evening to be when the sun began to descend and the second evening to be the real sunset. Due to this latter view the rabbis hold that the lamb was slaughtered in the latter part of the 14th, not at its start, and therefore that the Passover meal was actually eaten on Nisan 15.
On this point Professors Keil and Delitzsch say: “Different opinions have prevailed among the Jews from a very early date as to the precise time intended. Aben Ezra agrees with the Caraites and Samaritans in taking the first evening to be the time when the sun sinks below the horizon, and the second the time of total darkness; in which case, ‘between the two evenings’ would be from 6 o’clock to 7.20. . . . According to the rabbinical idea, the time when the sun began to descend, viz. from 3 to 5 o’clock, was the first evening, and sunset the second; so that ‘between the two evenings’ was from 3 to 6 o’clock. Modern expositors have very properly decided in favour of the view held by Aben Ezra and the custom adopted by the Caraites and Samaritans.”—Commentary on the Old Testament, 1973, Vol. I, The Second Book of Moses, p. 12; see DAY.
From the foregoing, and particularly in view of such texts as Exodus 12:17, 18, Leviticus 23:5-7, and Deuteronomy 16:6, 7, the weight of evidence points to the application of the expression “between the two evenings” to the time between sunset and dark. This would mean that the Passover meal was eaten well after sundown on Nisan 14, for it took considerable time to slaughter, skin, and roast the animal thoroughly. Deuteronomy 16:6 commands: “You should sacrifice the passover in the evening as soon as the sun sets.” Jesus and his apostles observed the Passover meal “after evening had fallen.” (Mr 14:17; Mt 26:20) Judas went out immediately after the Passover observance, “And it was night.” (Joh 13:30) When Jesus observed the Passover with his 12 apostles, there must have been no little conversation; then, too, some time would have been occupied by Jesus in washing the apostles’ feet. (Joh 13:2-5) Hence, the institution of the Lord’s Evening Meal certainly took place quite late in the evening.—See LORD’S EVENING MEAL.
At the Passover in Egypt, the head of the family was responsible for the slaying of the lamb (or goat) at each home, and all were to stay inside the house to avoid being slain by the angel. The partakers ate in a standing position, their hips girded, staff in hand, sandals on so as to be ready for a long journey over rough ground (whereas they often did their daily work barefoot). At midnight all the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain, but the angel passed over the houses on which the blood had been spattered. (Ex 12:11, 23) Every Egyptian household in which there was a firstborn male was affected, from the house of Pharaoh himself to the firstborn of the prisoner. It was not the head of the house, even though he may have been a firstborn, but was any male firstborn in the household under the head, as well as the male firstborn of animals, that was slain.—Ex 12:29, 30; see FIRSTBORN, FIRSTLING.
The Ten Plagues upon Egypt all proved to be a judgment against the gods of Egypt, especially the tenth, the death of the firstborn. (Ex 12:12) For the ram (male sheep) was sacred to the god Ra, so that splashing the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorways would be blasphemy in the eyes of the Egyptians. Also, the bull was sacred, and the destruction of the firstborn of the bulls would be a blow to the god Osiris. Pharaoh himself was venerated as a son of Ra. The death of Pharaoh’s own firstborn would thus show the impotence of both Ra and Pharaoh.
In the Wilderness and the Promised Land. Only one Passover celebration in the wilderness is mentioned. (Nu 9:1-14) The keeping of the Passover during the wilderness journey likely was limited, for two reasons: (1) Jehovah’s original instructions were that it must be kept when they reached the Promised Land. (Ex 12:25; 13:5) (2) Those born in the wilderness had not been circumcised (Jos 5:5), whereas all male partakers of Passover had to be circumcised.—Ex 12:45-49.
Record of Passovers Observed. The Hebrew Scriptures give direct accounts of the Passover (1) in Egypt (Ex 12); (2) in the wilderness at Sinai, Nisan 14, 1512 B.C.E. (Nu 9); (3) when they reached the Promised Land, at Gilgal and after the circumcision of the males, 1473 B.C.E. (Jos 5); (4) at the time that Hezekiah restored true worship (2Ch 30); (5) the Passover of Josiah (2Ch 35); and (6) the celebration by Israel after the return from Babylonian exile (Ezr 6). (Also, mention is made of Passovers held in Samuel’s day and during the days of the kings, at 2Ch 35:18.) After the Israelites were settled in the land, the Passover festival was observed “in the place that Jehovah will choose to have his name reside,” instead of in each home or in the various cities. In time, the chosen place came to be Jerusalem.—De 16:1-8.
Accretions. After Israel had settled in the Promised Land, certain changes were made and various accretions came about in observing the Passover. They no longer partook of the feast in a standing position, or equipped for a journey, for they were then in the land that God had given them. The first-century celebrants customarily ate it while lying on their left side, with the head resting on the left hand. This explains how one of Jesus’ disciples could be “reclining in front of Jesus’ bosom.” (Joh 13:23) Wine was not used at the Passover in Egypt nor was there any command given by Jehovah for its use with the festival. This practice was introduced later on. Jesus did not condemn the use of wine with the meal, but he drank wine with his apostles and afterward offered a cup for them to drink as he introduced the Lord’s Evening Meal, the Memorial.—Lu 22:15-18, 20.
According to traditional Jewish sources, red wine was used and four cups were handed around, although the service was not restricted to four cups. Psalms 113 to 118 were sung during the meal, concluding with Psalm 118. It is likely that it was one of these psalms that Jesus and his apostles sang in concluding the Lord’s Evening Meal.—Mt 26:30.
Customs at Passover Time. Great preparations were made in Jerusalem when the festival was due, as it was a requirement of the Law that every male Israelite and every male of the circumcised alien residents observe the Passover. (Nu 9:9-14) This meant that vast numbers would be making the journey to the city for some days in advance. They would come before the Passover in order to cleanse themselves ceremonially. (Joh 11:55) It is said that men were sent out about a month early to prepare the bridges and put the roads in good order for the convenience of the pilgrims. Since contact with a dead body rendered a person unclean, special precautions were taken to protect the traveler. As it was a practice to bury persons in the open field, if they died there, the graves were made conspicuous by being whitened a month ahead. (The Temple, by A. Edersheim, 1874, pp. 184, 185) This supplies background for Jesus’ words to the scribes and Pharisees, that they resembled “whitewashed graves.”—Mt 23:27.
Accommodations were made available in the homes for those coming to Jerusalem for Passover observance. In an Oriental home all the rooms could be slept in, and several persons could be accommodated in one room. Also, the flat roof of the house could be used. Added to this is the fact that numbers of the celebrants obtained accommodations outside the city walls, especially at Bethphage and Bethany, two villages on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.—Mr 11:1; 14:3.
Questions as to Time Order. It was a question of defilement that gave rise to the words: “They themselves did not enter into the governor’s palace, that they might not get defiled but might eat the passover.” (Joh 18:28) These Jews considered it a defilement to enter into a Gentile dwelling. (Ac 10:28) This statement was made, however, “early in the day,” hence after the Passover meal had taken place. It is to be noted that at this time the entire period, including Passover day and the Festival of Unfermented Cakes that followed, was at times referred to as “Passover.” In the light of this fact, Alfred Edersheim offers the following explanation: A voluntary peace offering was made on Passover and another, a compulsory one, on the next day, Nisan 15, the first day of the Festival of Unfermented Cakes. It was this second offering that the Jews were afraid they might not be able to eat if they contracted defilement in the judgment hall of Pilate.—The Temple, 1874, pp. 186, 187.
“The first day of the unfermented cakes.” A question also arises in connection with the statement at Matthew 26:17: “On the first day of the unfermented cakes the disciples came up to Jesus, saying: ‘Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the passover?’”
The expression “the first day” here could be rendered “the day before.” Concerning the use of the Greek word here translated “first,” a footnote on Matthew 26:17 in the New World Translation says: “Or, ‘On the day before.’ This rendering of the Gr. word [proʹtos] followed by the genitive case of the next word agrees with the sense and rendering of a like construction in Joh 1:15, 30, namely, ‘he existed before [proʹtos] me.’” According to Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, “[proʹtos] is sts. [sometimes] used where we should expect [proʹte·ros (meaning ‘former, earlier’)].” (Revised by H. Jones, Oxford, 1968, p. 1535) At this time, Passover day had come to be generally considered as the first day of the Festival of Unfermented Cakes. So, then, the original Greek, harmonized with Jewish custom, allows for the question to have been asked of Jesus on the day before Passover.
“Preparation.” At John 19:14, the apostle John, in the midst of his description of the final part of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, says: “Now it was preparation of the passover; it was about the sixth hour [of the daytime, between 11:00 a.m. and noon].” This, of course, was after the time of the Passover meal, which had been eaten the night before. Similar expressions are found at verses 31 and 42. Here the Greek word pa·ra·skeu·eʹ is translated “preparation.” This word seems to mark, not the day preceding Nisan 14, but the day preceding the weekly Sabbath, which, in this instance, was “a great one,” namely, not only a Sabbath by virtue of being Nisan 15, the first day of the actual Festival of Unfermented Cakes, but also a weekly Sabbath. This is understandable, since, as already stated, “Passover” was sometimes used to refer to the entire festival.—Joh 19:31; see PREPARATION.
Prophetic Significance. The apostle Paul, in urging Christians to live clean lives, attributes pictorial significance to the Passover. He says: “For, indeed, Christ our passover has been sacrificed.” (1Co 5:7) Here he likens Christ Jesus to the Passover lamb. John the Baptizer pointed to Jesus, saying: “See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh 1:29) John may have had in mind the Passover lamb, or he could have been thinking of the male sheep that Abraham offered up instead of his own son Isaac or of the male lamb that was offered up upon God’s altar at Jerusalem each morning and evening.—Ge 22:13; Ex 29:38-42.
Certain features of the Passover observance were fulfilled by Jesus. One fulfillment lies in the fact that the blood on the houses in Egypt delivered the firstborn from destruction at the hands of the destroying angel. Paul speaks of anointed Christians as the congregation of the firstborn (Heb 12:23), and of Christ as their deliverer through his blood. (1Th 1:10; Eph 1:7) No bones were to be broken in the Passover lamb. It had been prophesied that none of Jesus’ bones would be broken, and this was fulfilled at his death. (Ps 34:20; Joh 19:36) Thus the Passover kept by the Jews for centuries was one of those things in which the Law provided a shadow of the things to come and pointed to Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God.”—Heb 10:1; Joh 1:29.
1Kings 8-14 Young's Literal Translation.
8. Then doth Solomon assemble the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, princes of the fathers of the sons of Israel, unto king Solomon, to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah from the city of David -- it [is] Zion;
2 and all the men of Israel are assembled unto king Solomon, in the month of Ethanim, in the festival -- [is] the seventh month.
3 And all the elders of Israel come in, and the priests lift up the ark,
4 and bring up the ark of Jehovah, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that [are] in the tent, yea, the priests and the Levites bring them up.
5 And king Solomon and all the company of Israel who are met unto him [are] with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that are not counted nor numbered for multitude.
6 And the priests bring in the ark of the covenant of Jehovah unto its place, unto the oracle of the house, unto the holy of holies, unto the place of the wings of the cherubs;
7 for the cherubs are spreading forth two wings unto the place of the ark, and the cherubs cover over the ark, and over its staves from above;
8 and they lengthen the staves, and the heads of the staves are seen from the holy [place] on the front of the oracle, and are not seen without, and they are there unto this day.
9 There is nothing in the ark, only the two tables of stone which Moses put there in Horeb, when Jehovah covenanted with the sons of Israel in their going out of the land of Egypt.
10 And it cometh to pass, in the going out of the priests from the holy [place], that the cloud hath filled the house of Jehovah,
11 and the priests have not been able to stand to minister because of the cloud, for the honour of Jehovah hath filled the house of Jehovah.
12 Then said Solomon, `Jehovah hath said to dwell in thick darkness;
13 I have surely built a house of habitation for Thee; a fixed place for Thine abiding to the ages.'
14 And the king turneth round his face, and blesseth the whole assembly of Israel; and all the assembly of Israel is standing.
15 And he saith, `Blessed [is] Jehovah, God of Israel, who spake by His mouth with David my father, and by His hand hath fulfilled [it], saying,
16 From the day that I brought out My people, even Israel, from Egypt, I have not fixed on a city out of all the tribes of Israel, to build a house for My name being there; and I fix on David to be over My people Israel.
17 `And it is with the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel,
18 and Jehovah saith unto David my father, Because that it hath been with thy heart to build a house for My name, thou hast done well that it hath been with thy heart;
19 only, thou dost not build the house, but thy son who is coming out from thy loins, he doth build the house for My name.
20 `And Jehovah doth establish His word which He spake, and I am risen up instead of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah spake, and build the house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel,
21 and set there a place for the ark, where [is] the covenant of Jehovah which He made with our fathers in His bringing them out from the land of Egypt.'
22 And Solomon standeth before the altar of Jehovah, over-against all the assembly of Israel, and spreadeth his hands towards the heavens,
23 and saith, `Jehovah, God of Israel, there is not a God like Thee, in the heavens above, and on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the kindness for Thy servants, those walking before Thee with all their heart,
24 who hast kept for Thy servant David my father that which Thou spakest to him; yea, Thou speakest with Thy mouth, and with Thy hand hast fulfilled [it], as [at] this day.
25 `And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep for Thy servant David my father that which Thou spakest to him, saying, There is not cut off to thee a man from before Me, sitting on the throne of Israel -- only, if thy sons watch their way, to walk before Me as thou hast walked before Me.
26 `And now, O God of Israel, let it be established, I pray Thee, Thy word which Thou hast spoken to Thy servant, David my father.
27 But, is it true? -- God dwelleth on the earth! lo, the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens do not contain Thee, how much less this house which I have builded!
28 `Then thou hast turned unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto his supplication, O Jehovah my God, to hearken unto the cry and unto the prayer which Thy servant is praying before Thee to-day,
29 for Thine eyes being open towards this house night and day, towards the place of which Thou hast said, My Name is there; to hearken unto the prayer which Thy servant prayeth towards this place.
30 `Then Thou hast hearkened unto the supplication of Thy servant, and of Thy people Israel, which they pray towards this place; yea, Thou dost hearken in the place of Thy dwelling, in the heavens -- and Thou hast hearkened, and hast forgiven,
31 that which a man sinneth against his neighbour, and he hath lifted up upon him an oath to cause him to swear, and the oath hath come in before Thine altar in this house,
32 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast done, and hast judged Thy servants, to declare wicked the wicked, to put his way on his head, and to declare righteous the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.
33 `In Thy people Israel being smitten before an enemy, because they sin against Thee, and they have turned back unto Thee, and have confessed Thy name, and prayed, and made supplication unto Thee in this house,
34 then thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast forgiven the sin of Thy people Israel, and brought them back unto the ground that Thou gavest to their fathers.
35 `In the heavens being restrained, and there is no rain, because they sin against Thee, and they have prayed towards this place, and confessed Thy name, and from their sin turn back, for Thou dost afflict them,
36 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast forgiven the sin of Thy servants, and of Thy people Israel, for Thou directest them the good way in which they go, and hast given rain on Thy land which Thou hast given to Thy people for inheritance.
37 `Famine -- when it is in the land; pestilence -- when it is; blasting, mildew, locust; caterpillar -- when it is; when its enemy hath distressed it in the land [in] its gates, any plague, any sickness, --
38 any prayer, any supplication that [is] of any man of all Thy people Israel, who know each the plague of his own heart, and hath spread his hands towards this house,
39 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, and hast forgiven, and hast done, and hast given to each according to all his ways, whose heart Thou knowest, (for Thou hast known -- Thyself alone -- the heart of all the sons of man),
40 so that they fear Thee all the days that they are living on the face of the ground that Thou hast given to our fathers.
41 `And also, unto the stranger who is not of Thy people Israel, and hath come from a land afar off for Thy name's sake --
42 (for they hear of Thy great name, and of Thy strong hand, and of Thy stretched-out arm) -- and he hath come in and prayed towards this house,
43 Thou dost hear in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, and hast done according to all that the stranger calleth unto Thee for, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee like Thy people Israel, and to know that Thy name hath been called on this house which I have builded.
44 `When Thy people doth go out to battle against its enemy, in the way that Thou dost send them, and they have prayed unto Jehovah the way of the city which thou hast fixed on, and of the house which I have builded for Thy name;
45 then Thou hast heard in the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and hast maintained their cause.
46 `When they sin against Thee (for there is not a man who sinneth not), and Thou hast been angry with them, and hast given them up before an enemy, and they have taken captive their captivity unto the land of the enemy far off or near;
47 and they have turned [it] back unto their heart in the land whither they have been taken captive, and have turned back, and made supplication unto Thee, in the land of their captors, saying, We have sinned and done perversely -- we have done wickedly;
48 yea, they have turned back unto Thee, with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and have prayed unto Thee the way of their land, which Thou gavest to their fathers, the city which Thou hast chosen, and the house which I have builded for Thy name:
49 `Then Thou hast heard in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, their prayer and their supplication, and hast maintained their cause,
50 and hast forgiven Thy people who have sinned against Thee, even all their transgressions which they have transgressed against Thee, and hast given them mercies before their captors, and they have had mercy [on] them --
51 (for Thy people and Thy inheritance [are] they, whom Thou didst bring out of Egypt, out of the midst of the furnace of iron) --
52 for Thine eyes being open unto the supplication of Thy servant, and unto the supplication of Thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all they call unto Thee for;
53 for Thou hast separated them to Thyself for an inheritance, out of all the peoples of the earth, as Thou didst speak by the hand of Moses Thy servant, in Thy bringing out our fathers from Egypt, O Lord Jehovah.'
54 And it cometh to pass, at Solomon's finishing to pray unto Jehovah all this prayer and supplication, he hath risen from before the altar of Jehovah, from bending on his knees, and his hands spread out to the heavens,
55 and he standeth and blesseth all the assembly of Israel [with] a loud voice, saying,
56 `Blessed [is] Jehovah who hath given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He hath spoken; there hath not fallen one word of all His good word, which He spake by the hand of Moses his servant.
57 `Jehovah our God is with us as He hath been with our fathers; He doth not forsake us nor leave us;
58 to incline our heart unto Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commands, and His statutes, and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers;
59 and these my words with which I have made supplication before Jehovah, are near unto Jehovah our God by day and by night, to maintain the cause of His servant, and the cause of His people Israel, the matter of a day in its day;
60 for all the peoples of the earth knowing that Jehovah, He [is] God; there is none else;
61 and your heart hath been perfect with Jehovah our God, to walk in His statutes, and to keep His commands, as [at] this day.'
62 And the king and all Israel with him are sacrificing a sacrifice before Jehovah;
63 and Solomon sacrificeth the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which he hath sacrificed to Jehovah, oxen, twenty and two thousand, and sheep, a hundred and twenty thousand; and the king and all the sons of Israel dedicate the house of Jehovah.
64 On that day hath the king sanctified the middle of the court that [is] before the house of Jehovah, for he hath made there the burnt-offering, and the present, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for the altar of brass that [is] before Jehovah [is] too little to contain the burnt-offering, and the present, and the fat of the peace-offerings.
65 And Solomon maketh, at that time, the festival -- and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entering in of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt -- before Jehovah our God, seven days and seven days; fourteen days.
66 On the eighth day he hath sent the people away, and they bless the king, and go to their tents, rejoicing and glad of heart for all the good that Jehovah hath done to David His servant, and to Israel His people.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
9.And it cometh to pass, at Solomon's finishing to build the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king, and all the desire of Solomon that he delighted to do,
2 that Jehovah appeareth unto Solomon a second time, as He appeared unto him in Gibeon,
3 and Jehovah saith unto him, `I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication with which thou hast made supplication before Me; I have hallowed this house that thou hast built to put My name there -- unto the age, and Mine eyes and My heart have been there all the days.
4 `And thou -- if thou dost walk before Me as David thy father walked, in simplicity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee -- My statutes and My judgments thou dost keep --
5 then I have established the throne of thy kingdom over Israel -- to the age, as I spake unto David thy father, saying, There is not cut off to thee a man from [being] on the throne of Israel.
6 `If ye at all turn back -- you and your sons -- from after Me, and keep not My commands -- My statutes, that I have set before you, and ye have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,
7 then I have cut off Israel from the face of the ground that I have given to them, and the house that I have hallowed for My name I send away from My presence, and Israel hath been for a simile and for a byword among all the peoples;
8 as to this house, [that] is high, every one passing by it is astonished, and hath hissed, and they have said, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus to this land and to this house?
9 and they have said, Because that they have forsaken Jehovah their God, who brought out their fathers from the land of Egypt, and they lay hold on other gods, and bow themselves to them, and serve them; therefore hath Jehovah brought in upon them all this evil.'
10 And it cometh to pass, at the end of twenty years, that Solomon hath built the two houses, the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king.
11 Hiram king of Tyre hath assisted Solomon with cedar-trees, and with fir-trees, and with gold, according to all his desire; then doth king Solomon give to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
12 And Hiram cometh out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon hath given to him, and they have not been right in his eyes,
13 and he saith, `What [are] these cities that thou hast given to me, my brother?' and one calleth them the land of Cabul unto this day.
14 And Hiram sendeth to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.
15 And this [is] the matter of the tribute that king Solomon hath lifted up, to build the house of Jehovah, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer,
16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt hath gone up and doth capture Gezer, and doth burn it with fire, and the Canaanite who is dwelling in the city he hath slain, and giveth it [with] presents to his daughter, wife of Solomon.)
17 And Solomon buildeth Gezer, and Beth-Horon the lower,
18 and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land;
19 and all the cities of stores that king Solomon hath, and the cities of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen, and the desire of Solomon that he desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
20 The whole of the people that is left of the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, who [are] not of the sons of Israel --
21 their sons who are left behind them in the land, whom the sons of Israel have not been able to devote -- he hath even lifted up [on] them a tribute of service unto this day.
22 And out of the sons of Israel Solomon hath not appointed a servant, for they [are] the men of war, and his servants, and his heads, and his captains, and the heads of his chariots, and his horsemen.
23 These [are] the heads of the officers who [are] over the work of Solomon, fifty and five hundred, those ruling among the people who are labouring in the work.
24 Only, the daughter of Pharaoh went up out of the city of David unto her house that [Solomon] built for her; then he built Millo.
25 And Solomon caused to ascend, three times in a year, burnt-offerings and peace-offerings on the altar that he built to Jehovah, and he perfumed it with that which [is] before Jehovah, and finished the house.
26 And a navy hath king Solomon made in Ezion-Geber, that is beside Eloth, on the edge of the Sea of Suph, in the land of Edom.
27 And Hiram sendeth in the navy his servants, shipmen knowing the sea, with servants of Solomon,
28 and they come in to Ophir and take thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and bring [it] in unto king Solomon.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
10. And the queen of Sheba is hearing of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Jehovah, and cometh to try him with enigmas,
2 and she cometh to Jerusalem, with a very great company, camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stone, and she cometh unto Solomon, and speaketh unto him all that hath been with her heart.
3 And Solomon declareth to her all her matters -- there hath not been a thing hid from the king that he hath not declared to her.
4 And the queen of Sheba seeth all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he built,
5 and the food of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the standing of his ministers, and their clothing, and his butlers, and his burnt-offering that he causeth to ascend in the house of Jehovah, and there hath not been in her any more spirit.
6 And she saith unto the king, `True hath been the word that I heard in my land, concerning thy matters and thy wisdom;
7 and I gave no credence to the words till that I have come, and my eyes see, and lo, it was not declared to me -- the half; thou hast added wisdom and goodness unto the report that I heard.
8 O the happiness of thy men, O the happiness of thy servants -- these -- who are standing before thee continually, who are hearing thy wisdom!
9 Jehovah thy God is blessed who delighted in thee, to put thee on the throne of Israel; in Jehovah's loving Israel to the age He doth set thee for king, to do judgment and righteousness.
10 And she giveth to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and spices very many, and precious stone; there came not like that spice any more for abundance that the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
11 And also, the navy of Hiram that bore gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir almug-trees very many, and precious stone;
12 and the king maketh the almug-trees a support for the house of Jehovah, and for the house of the king, and harps and psalteries for singers; there have not come such almug-trees, nor have there been seen [such] unto this day.
13 And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire that she asked, apart from that which he gave to her as a memorial of king Solomon, and she turneth and goeth to her land, she and her servants.
14 And the weight of the gold that hath come to Solomon in one year is six hundred sixty and six talents of gold,
15 apart from [that of] the tourists, and of the traffic of the merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the land.
16 And king Solomon maketh two hundred targets of alloyed gold -- six hundred of gold go up on the one target;
17 and three hundred shields of alloyed gold -- three pounds of gold go up on the one shield; and the king putteth them [in] the house of the forest of Lebanon.
18 And the king maketh a great throne of ivory, and overlayeth it with refined gold;
19 six steps hath the throne, and a round top [is] to the throne behind it, and hands [are] on this [side] and on that, unto the place of the sitting, and two lions are standing near the hands,
20 and twelve lions are standing there on the six steps, on this [side] and on that; it hath not been made so for any kingdom.
21 And all the drinking vessels of king Solomon [are] of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon [are] of refined gold -- there are none of silver; it was not reckoned in the days of Solomon for anything,
22 for a navy of Tarshish hath the king at sea with a navy of Hiram; once in three years cometh the navy of Tarshish, bearing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
23 And king Solomon is greater than any of the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom,
24 and all the earth is seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom that God hath put into his heart,
25 and they are bringing each his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, the matter of a year in a year.
26 And Solomon gathereth chariots, and horsemen, and he hath a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, and he placeth them in the cities of the chariot, and with the king in Jerusalem.
27 And the king maketh the silver in Jerusalem as stones, and the cedars he hath made as the sycamores that [are] in the low country, for abundance.
28 And the outgoing of the horses that king Solomon hath [is] from Egypt, and from Keveh; merchants of the king take from Keveh at a price;
29 and a chariot cometh up and cometh out of Egypt for six hundred silverlings, and a horse for fifty and a hundred, and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Aram; by their hand they bring out.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
11.And king Solomon hath loved many strange women, and the daughter of Pharaoh, females of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Zidon, [and] of the Hittites,
2 of the nations of which Jehovah said unto the sons of Israel, `Ye do not go in to them, and they do not go in to you; surely they turn aside your heart after their gods;' to them hath Solomon cleaved for love.
3 And he hath women, princesses, seven hundred, and concubines three hundred; and his wives turn aside his heart.
4 And it cometh to pass, at the time of the old age of Solomon, his wives have turned aside his heart after other gods, and his heart hath not been perfect with Jehovah his God, like the heart of David his father.
5 And Solomon goeth after Ashtoreth god[dess] of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites;
6 and Solomon doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, and hath not been fully after Jehovah, like David his father.
7 Then doth Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, in the hill that [is] on the front of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the sons of Ammon;
8 and so he hath done for all his strange women, who are perfuming and sacrificing to their gods.
9 And Jehovah sheweth Himself angry with Solomon, for his heart hath turned aside from Jehovah, God of Israel, who had appeared unto him twice,
10 and given a charge unto him concerning this thing, not to go after other gods; and he hath not kept that which Jehovah commanded,
11 and Jehovah saith to Solomon, `Because that this hath been with thee, and thou hast not kept My covenant and My statutes that I charged upon thee, I surely rend the kingdom from thee, and have given it to thy servant.
12 `Only, in thy days I do it not, for the sake of David thy father; out of the hand of thy son I rend it;
13 only all the kingdom I do not rend away; one tribe I give to thy son, for the sake of David My servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, that I have chosen.'
14 And Jehovah raiseth up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; of the seed of the king [is] he in Edom;
15 and it cometh to pass, in David's being with Edom, in the going up of Joab head of the host to bury the slain, that he smiteth every male in Edom --
16 for six months did Joab abide there, and all Israel, till the cutting off of every male in Edom --
17 and Hadad fleeth, he and certain Edomites, of the servants of his father, with him, to go in to Egypt, and Hadad [is] a little youth,
18 and they rise out of Midian, and come into Paran, and take men with them out of Paran, and come in to Egypt, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he giveth to him a house, and bread hath commanded for him, and land hath given to him.
19 And Hadad findeth grace in the eyes of Pharaoh exceedingly, and he giveth to him a wife, the sister of his own wife, sister of Tahpenes the mistress;
20 and the sister of Tahpenes beareth to him Genubath his son, and Tahpenes weaneth him within the house of Pharaoh, and Genubath is in the house of Pharaoh in the midst of the sons of Pharaoh.
21 And Hadad hath heard in Egypt that David hath lain with his fathers, and that Joab head of the host is dead, and Hadad saith unto Pharaoh, `Send me away, and I go unto my land.'
22 And Pharaoh saith to him, `But, what art thou lacking with me, that lo, thou art seeking to go unto thine own land?' and he saith, `Nay, but thou dost certainly send me away.'
23 And God raiseth to him an adversary, Rezon son of Eliadah, who hath fled from Hadadezer king of Zobah, his lord,
24 and gathereth unto himself men, and is head of a troop in David's slaying them, and they go to Damascus, and dwell in it, and reign in Damascus;
25 and he is an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, (besides the evil that Hadad [did]), and he cutteth off in Israel, and reigneth over Aram.
26 And Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda -- the name of whose mother [is] Zeruah, a widow woman -- servant to Solomon, he also lifteth up a hand against the king;
27 and this [is] the thing [for] which he lifted up a hand against the king: Solomon built Millo -- he shut up the breach of the city of David his father,
28 and the man Jeroboam [is] mighty in valour, and Solomon seeth the young man that he is doing business, and appointeth him over all the burden of the house of Joseph.
29 And it cometh to pass, at that time, that Jeroboam hath gone out from Jerusalem, and Ahijah the Shilonite, the prophet, findeth him in the way, and he is covering himself with a new garment; and both of them [are] by themselves in a field,
30 and Ahijah layeth hold on the new garment that [is] on him, and rendeth it -- twelve pieces,
31 and saith to Jeroboam, `Take to thee ten pieces, for thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, lo, I am rending the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and have given to thee the ten tribes,
32 and the one tribe he hath for My servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have fixed on, out of all the tribes of Israel.
33 `Because they have forsaken Me, and bow themselves to Ashtoreth, god[dess] of the Zidonians, to Chemosh god of Moab, and to Milcom god of the sons of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways, to do that which [is] right in Mine eyes, and My statutes and My judgments, like David his father.
34 `And I do not take the whole of the kingdom out of his hand, for prince I make him all days of his life, for the sake of David My servant whom I chose, who kept My commands and My statutes;
35 and I have taken the kingdom out of the hand of his son, and given it to thee -- the ten tribes;
36 and to his son I give one tribe, for there being a lamp to David My servant all the days before Me in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen to Myself to put My name there.
37 `And thee I take, and thou hast reigned over all that thy soul desireth, and thou hast been king over Israel;
38 and it hath been, if thou dost hear all that I command thee, and hast walked in My ways, and done that which is right in Mine eyes, to keep My statutes and My commands, as did David My servant, that I have been with thee, and have built for thee a stedfast house, as I built for David, and have given to thee Israel,
39 and I humble the seed of David for this; only, not all the days.'
40 And Solomon seeketh to put Jeroboam to death, and Jeroboam riseth and fleeth to Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and he is in Egypt till the death of Solomon.
41 And the rest of the matters of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written on the book of the matters of Solomon?
42 And the days that Solomon hath reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel [are] forty years,
43 and Solomon lieth with his fathers, and is buried in the city of David his father, and reign doth Rehoboam his son in his stead.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
12.And Rehoboam goeth to Shechem, for to Shechem hath all Israel come to make him king.
2 And it cometh to pass, at Jeroboam son of Nebat's hearing (and he [is] yet in Egypt where he hath fled from the presence of Solomon the king, and Jeroboam dwelleth in Egypt),
3 that they send and call for him; and they come -- Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel -- and speak unto Rehoboam, saying,
4 `Thy father made hard our yoke, and thou, now, make light [some] of the hard service of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we serve thee.'
5 And he saith unto them, `Go -- yet three days, and come back unto me;' and the people go.
6 And king Rehoboam consulteth with the elders who have been standing in the presence of Solomon his father, in his being alive, saying, `How are ye counselling to answer this people?'
7 And they speak unto him, saying, `If, to-day, thou art servant to this people, and hast served them, and answered them, and spoken unto them good words, then they have been to thee servants all the days.'
8 And he forsaketh the counsel of the elders which they counselled him, and consulteth with the lads who have grown up with him, who are standing before him;
9 and he saith unto them, `What are ye counselling, and we answer this people, who have spoken unto me, saying, Lighten [somewhat] of the yoke that thy father put upon us?'
10 And they speak unto him -- the lads who had grown up with him -- saying, `Thus dost thou say to this people who have spoken unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, and thou, make [it] light upon us; thus dost thou speak unto them, My little [finger] is thicker than the loins of my father;
11 and now, my father laid on you a heavy yoke, and I add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, and I -- I chastise you with scorpions.'
12 And they come -- Jeroboam and all the people -- unto Rehoboam, on the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, `Come back unto me on the third day.'
13 And the king answereth the people sharply, and forsaketh the counsel of the elders which they counselled him,
14 and speaketh unto them, according to the counsel of the lads, saying, `My father made your yoke heavy, and I add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, and I -- I chastise you with scorpions;'
15 and the king hearkened not unto the people, for the revolution was from Jehovah, in order to establish His word that Jehovah spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16 And all Israel see that the king hath not hearkened unto them, and the people send the king back word, saying, `What portion have we in David? yea, there is no inheritance in the son of Jesse; to thy tents, O Israel; now see thy house, O David!' and Israel goeth to its tents.
17 As to the sons of Israel, those dwelling in the cities of Judah -- over them reign doth Rehoboam.
18 And king Rehoboam sendeth Adoram who [is] over the tribute, and all Israel cast at him stones, and he dieth; and king Rehoboam hath strengthened himself to go up into a chariot to flee to Jerusalem;
19 and Israel transgresseth against the house of David unto this day.
20 And it cometh to pass, at all Israel's hearing that Jeroboam hath returned, that they send and call him unto the company, and cause him to reign over all Israel; none hath been after the house of David save the tribe of Judah alone.
21 And Rehoboam cometh to Jerusalem, and assembleth all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight with the house of Israel, to bring back the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 And the word of God is unto Shemaiah a man of God, saying,
23 `Speak unto Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people, saying,
24 Thus said Jehovah, Ye do not go up nor fight with your brethren the sons of Israel; turn back each to his house, for from Me hath this thing been;' and they hear the word of Jehovah, and turn back to go according to the word of Jehovah.
25 And Jeroboam buildeth Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and dwelleth in it, and goeth out thence, and buildeth Penuel;
26 and Jeroboam saith in his heart, `Now doth the kingdom turn back to the house of David --
27 if this people go up to make sacrifices in the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, then hath the heart of this people turned back unto their lord, unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they have slain me, and turned back unto Rehoboam king of Judah.'
28 And the king taketh counsel, and maketh two calves of gold, and saith unto them, `Enough to you of going up to Jerusalem; lo, thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.'
29 And he setteth the one in Beth-El, and the other he hath put in Dan,
30 and this thing becometh a sin, and the people go before the one -- unto Dan.
31 And he maketh the house of high places, and maketh priests of the extremities of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi;
32 and Jeroboam maketh a festival in the eighth month, in the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival that [is] in Judah, and he offereth on the altar -- so did he in Beth-El -- to sacrifice to the calves which he made, and he hath appointed in Beth-El the priests of the high places that he made.
33 And he offereth up on the altar that he made in Beth-El, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month that he devised of his own heart, and he maketh a festival to the sons of Israel, and offereth on the altar -- to make perfume.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
13.And lo, a man of God hath come from Judah, by the word of Jehovah, unto Beth-El, and Jeroboam is standing by the altar -- to make perfume;
2 and he calleth against the altar, by the word of Jehovah, and saith, `Altar! altar! thus said Jehovah, Lo, a son is born to the house of David -- Josiah his name -- and he hath sacrificed on thee the priests of the high places who are making perfume on thee, and bones of man are burnt on thee.'
3 And he hath given on that day a sign, saying, `This [is] the sign that Jehovah hath spoken, Lo, the altar is rent, and the ashes poured forth that [are] on it.'
4 And it cometh to pass, at the king's hearing the word of the man of God that he calleth against the altar in Beth-El, that Jeroboam putteth forth his hand from off the altar, saying, `Catch him;' and his hand is dried up that he hath put forth against him, and he is not able to bring it back unto him,
5 and the altar is rent, and the ashes poured forth from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of Jehovah.
6 And the king answereth and saith unto the man of God, `Appease, I pray thee, the face of Jehovah thy God, and pray for me, and my hand doth come back unto me;' and the man of God appeaseth the face of Jehovah, and the hand of the king cometh back unto him, and it is as at the beginning.
7 And the king speaketh unto the man of God, `Come in with me to the house, and refresh thyself, and I give to thee a gift.'
8 And the man of God saith unto the king, `If thou dost give to me the half of thine house, I do not go in with thee, nor do I eat bread, nor do I drink water, in this place;
9 for so He commanded me by the word of Jehovah, saying, Thou dost not eat bread nor drink water, nor turn back in the way that thou hast come.'
10 And he goeth on in another way, and hath not turned back in the way in which he came in unto Beth-El.
11 And a certain aged prophet is dwelling in Beth-El, and his son cometh and recounteth to him all the deed that the man of God hath done to-day in Beth-El, the words that he hath spoken unto the king, -- yea, they recount them to their father.
12 And their father saith unto them, `Where [is] this -- the way he hath gone?' and his sons see the way that the man of God hath gone who came from Judah.
13 And he saith unto his sons, `Saddle for me the ass,' and they saddle for him the ass, and he rideth on it,
14 and goeth after the man of God, and findeth him sitting under the oak, and saith unto him, `Art thou the man of God who hast come from Judah?' and he saith, `I [am].'
15 And he saith unto him, `Come with me to the house, and eat bread.'
16 And he saith, `I am not able to turn back with thee, and to go in with thee, nor do I eat bread or drink with thee water in this place,
17 for a word [is] unto me by the word of Jehovah, Thou dost not eat bread nor drink there water, thou dost not turn back to go in the way in which thou camest.'
18 And he saith to him, `I also [am] a prophet like thee, and a messenger spake unto me by the word of Jehovah, saying, Bring him back with thee unto thy house, and he doth eat bread and drink water;' -- he hath lied to him.
19 And he turneth back with him, and eateth bread in his house, and drinketh water.
20 And it cometh to pass -- they are sitting at the table -- and a word of Jehovah is unto the prophet who brought him back,
21 and he calleth unto the man of God who came from Judah, saying, `Thus said Jehovah, Because that thou hast provoked the mouth of Jehovah, and hast not kept the command that Jehovah thy God charged thee,
22 and turnest back and dost eat bread and drink water in the place of which He said unto thee, Thou dost not eat bread nor drink water -- thy carcase cometh not in unto the burying-place of thy fathers.'
23 And it cometh to pass, after his eating bread, and after his drinking, that he saddleth for him the ass, for the prophet whom he had brought back,
24 and he goeth, and a lion findeth him in the way, and putteth him to death, and his carcase is cast in the way, and the ass is standing near it, and the lion is standing near the carcase.
25 And lo, men are passing by, and see the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing near the carcase, and they come and speak [of it] in the city in which the old prophet is dwelling.
26 And the prophet who brought him back out of the way heareth and saith, `It [is] the man of God who provoked the mouth of Jehovah, and Jehovah giveth him to the lion, and it destroyeth him, and putteth him to death, according to the word of Jehovah that he spake to him.'
27 And he speaketh unto his sons saying, `Saddle for me the ass,' and they saddle [it].
28 And he goeth and findeth his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion are standing near the carcase -- the lion hath not eaten the carcase nor destroyed the ass.
29 And the prophet taketh up the carcase of the man of God, and placeth it on the ass, and bringeth it back, and the old prophet cometh in unto the city to mourn and to bury him,
30 and he placeth his carcase in his own grave, and they mourn for him, `Oh, my brother!'
31 And it cometh to pass, after his burying him, that he speaketh unto his sons, saying, `At my death -- ye have buried me in the burying-place in which the man of God is buried; near his bones place my bones;
32 for the word certainly cometh to pass that he called by the word of Jehovah concerning the altar which [is] Beth-El, and concerning all the houses of the high places that [are] in cities of Samaria.'
33 After this thing Jeroboam hath not turned from his evil way, and turneth back, and maketh of the extremities of the people priests of high places; he who is desirous he consecrateth his hand, and he is of the priests of the high places.
34 And in this thing is the sin of the house of Jeroboam, even to cut [it] off, and to destroy [it] from off the face of the ground.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
14.At that time was Abijah son of Jeroboam sick,
2 and Jeroboam saith to his wife, `Rise, I pray thee, and change thyself, and they know not that thou [art] wife of Jeroboam, and thou hast gone to Shiloh; lo, there [is] Ahijah the prophet; he spake unto me of [being] king over this people;
3 and thou hast taken in thy hand ten loaves, and crumbs, and a bottle of honey, and hast gone in unto him; he doth declare to thee what becometh of the youth.'
4 And the wife of Jeroboam doth so, and riseth, and goeth to Shiloh, and entereth the house of Ahijah, and Ahijah is not able to see, for his eyes have stood because of his age.
5 And Jehovah said unto Ahijah, `Lo, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to seek a word from thee concerning her son, for he is sick; thus and thus thou dost speak unto her, and it cometh to pass at her coming in, that she is making herself strange.'
6 And it cometh to pass, at Ahijah's hearing the sound of her feet [as] she came in to the opening, that he saith, `Come in, wife of Jeroboam, why is this -- thou art making thyself strange? and I am sent unto thee [with] a sharp thing:
7 Go, say to Jeroboam, Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Because that I have made thee high out of the midst of the people, and appoint thee leader over my people Israel,
8 and rend the kingdom from the house of David, and give it to thee, -- and thou hast not been as My servant David who kept My commands, and who walked after Me with all his heart, to do only that which [is] right in Mine eyes,
9 and thou dost evil above all who have been before thee, and goest, and makest to thee other gods and molten images to provoke Me to anger, and Me thou hast cast behind thy back:
10 `Therefore, lo, I am bringing in evil unto the house of Jeroboam, and have cut off to Jeroboam those sitting on the wall -- shut up and left -- in Israel, and have put away the posterity of the house of Jeroboam, as one putteth away the dung till its consumption;
11 him who dieth of Jeroboam in a city do the dogs eat, and him who dieth in a field do fowl of the heavens eat, for Jehovah hath spoken.
12 `And thou, rise, go to thy house; in the going in of thy feet to the city -- hath the lad died;
13 and all Israel have mourned for him, and buried him, for this one -- by himself -- cometh of Jeroboam unto a grave, because there hath been found in him a good thing towards Jehovah, God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.
14 `And Jehovah hath raised up for Him a king over Israel who cutteth off the house of Jeroboam this day -- and what? -- even now!
15 And Jehovah hath smitten Israel as the reed is moved by the waters, and hath plucked Israel from off this good ground that He gave to their fathers, and scattered them beyond the River, because that they made their shrines, provoking Jehovah to anger;
16 and He giveth up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam that he sinned, and that he caused Israel to sin.'
17 And the wife of Jeroboam riseth, and goeth, and cometh to Tirzah; she hath come in to the threshold of the house, and the youth dieth;
18 and they bury him, and mourn for him do all Israel, according to the word of Jehovah, that he spake by the hand of His servant Ahijah the prophet.
19 And the rest of the matters of Jeroboam, how he fought, and how he reigned, lo, they are written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel.
20 And the days that Jeroboam reigned [are] twenty and two years, and he lieth with his fathers, and reign doth Nadab his son in his stead.
21 And Rehoboam son of Solomon hath reigned in Judah; a son of forty and one years [is] Rehoboam in his reigning, and seventeen years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, the city that Jehovah chose to set His name there, out of all the tribes of Israel, and the name of his mother [is] Naamah the Ammonitess.
22 And Judah doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, and they make Him zealous above all that their fathers did by their sins that they have sinned.
23 And they build -- also they -- for themselves high places, and standing-pillars, and shrines, on every high height, and under every green tree;
24 and also a whoremonger hath been in the land; they have done according to all the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel.
25 And it cometh to pass, in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, gone up hath Shishak king of Egypt against Jerusalem,
26 and he taketh the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the house of the king, yea, the whole he hath taken; and he taketh all the shields of gold that Solomon made.
27 And king Rehoboam maketh in their stead shields of brass, and hath made [them] a charge on the hand of the heads of the runners, those keeping the opening of the house of the king,
28 and it cometh to pass, from the going in of the king to the house of Jehovah, the runners bear them, and have brought them back unto the chamber of the runners.
29 And the rest of the matters of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
30 And war hath been between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days;
31 and Rehoboam lieth with his fathers, and is buried with his fathers, in the city of David, and the name of his mother [is] Naamah the Ammonitess, and reign doth Abijam his son in his stead.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
2 and all the men of Israel are assembled unto king Solomon, in the month of Ethanim, in the festival -- [is] the seventh month.
3 And all the elders of Israel come in, and the priests lift up the ark,
4 and bring up the ark of Jehovah, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that [are] in the tent, yea, the priests and the Levites bring them up.
5 And king Solomon and all the company of Israel who are met unto him [are] with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that are not counted nor numbered for multitude.
6 And the priests bring in the ark of the covenant of Jehovah unto its place, unto the oracle of the house, unto the holy of holies, unto the place of the wings of the cherubs;
7 for the cherubs are spreading forth two wings unto the place of the ark, and the cherubs cover over the ark, and over its staves from above;
8 and they lengthen the staves, and the heads of the staves are seen from the holy [place] on the front of the oracle, and are not seen without, and they are there unto this day.
9 There is nothing in the ark, only the two tables of stone which Moses put there in Horeb, when Jehovah covenanted with the sons of Israel in their going out of the land of Egypt.
10 And it cometh to pass, in the going out of the priests from the holy [place], that the cloud hath filled the house of Jehovah,
11 and the priests have not been able to stand to minister because of the cloud, for the honour of Jehovah hath filled the house of Jehovah.
12 Then said Solomon, `Jehovah hath said to dwell in thick darkness;
13 I have surely built a house of habitation for Thee; a fixed place for Thine abiding to the ages.'
14 And the king turneth round his face, and blesseth the whole assembly of Israel; and all the assembly of Israel is standing.
15 And he saith, `Blessed [is] Jehovah, God of Israel, who spake by His mouth with David my father, and by His hand hath fulfilled [it], saying,
16 From the day that I brought out My people, even Israel, from Egypt, I have not fixed on a city out of all the tribes of Israel, to build a house for My name being there; and I fix on David to be over My people Israel.
17 `And it is with the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel,
18 and Jehovah saith unto David my father, Because that it hath been with thy heart to build a house for My name, thou hast done well that it hath been with thy heart;
19 only, thou dost not build the house, but thy son who is coming out from thy loins, he doth build the house for My name.
20 `And Jehovah doth establish His word which He spake, and I am risen up instead of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah spake, and build the house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel,
21 and set there a place for the ark, where [is] the covenant of Jehovah which He made with our fathers in His bringing them out from the land of Egypt.'
22 And Solomon standeth before the altar of Jehovah, over-against all the assembly of Israel, and spreadeth his hands towards the heavens,
23 and saith, `Jehovah, God of Israel, there is not a God like Thee, in the heavens above, and on the earth beneath, keeping the covenant and the kindness for Thy servants, those walking before Thee with all their heart,
24 who hast kept for Thy servant David my father that which Thou spakest to him; yea, Thou speakest with Thy mouth, and with Thy hand hast fulfilled [it], as [at] this day.
25 `And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep for Thy servant David my father that which Thou spakest to him, saying, There is not cut off to thee a man from before Me, sitting on the throne of Israel -- only, if thy sons watch their way, to walk before Me as thou hast walked before Me.
26 `And now, O God of Israel, let it be established, I pray Thee, Thy word which Thou hast spoken to Thy servant, David my father.
27 But, is it true? -- God dwelleth on the earth! lo, the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens do not contain Thee, how much less this house which I have builded!
28 `Then thou hast turned unto the prayer of Thy servant, and unto his supplication, O Jehovah my God, to hearken unto the cry and unto the prayer which Thy servant is praying before Thee to-day,
29 for Thine eyes being open towards this house night and day, towards the place of which Thou hast said, My Name is there; to hearken unto the prayer which Thy servant prayeth towards this place.
30 `Then Thou hast hearkened unto the supplication of Thy servant, and of Thy people Israel, which they pray towards this place; yea, Thou dost hearken in the place of Thy dwelling, in the heavens -- and Thou hast hearkened, and hast forgiven,
31 that which a man sinneth against his neighbour, and he hath lifted up upon him an oath to cause him to swear, and the oath hath come in before Thine altar in this house,
32 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast done, and hast judged Thy servants, to declare wicked the wicked, to put his way on his head, and to declare righteous the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.
33 `In Thy people Israel being smitten before an enemy, because they sin against Thee, and they have turned back unto Thee, and have confessed Thy name, and prayed, and made supplication unto Thee in this house,
34 then thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast forgiven the sin of Thy people Israel, and brought them back unto the ground that Thou gavest to their fathers.
35 `In the heavens being restrained, and there is no rain, because they sin against Thee, and they have prayed towards this place, and confessed Thy name, and from their sin turn back, for Thou dost afflict them,
36 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, and hast forgiven the sin of Thy servants, and of Thy people Israel, for Thou directest them the good way in which they go, and hast given rain on Thy land which Thou hast given to Thy people for inheritance.
37 `Famine -- when it is in the land; pestilence -- when it is; blasting, mildew, locust; caterpillar -- when it is; when its enemy hath distressed it in the land [in] its gates, any plague, any sickness, --
38 any prayer, any supplication that [is] of any man of all Thy people Israel, who know each the plague of his own heart, and hath spread his hands towards this house,
39 then Thou dost hear in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, and hast forgiven, and hast done, and hast given to each according to all his ways, whose heart Thou knowest, (for Thou hast known -- Thyself alone -- the heart of all the sons of man),
40 so that they fear Thee all the days that they are living on the face of the ground that Thou hast given to our fathers.
41 `And also, unto the stranger who is not of Thy people Israel, and hath come from a land afar off for Thy name's sake --
42 (for they hear of Thy great name, and of Thy strong hand, and of Thy stretched-out arm) -- and he hath come in and prayed towards this house,
43 Thou dost hear in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, and hast done according to all that the stranger calleth unto Thee for, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee like Thy people Israel, and to know that Thy name hath been called on this house which I have builded.
44 `When Thy people doth go out to battle against its enemy, in the way that Thou dost send them, and they have prayed unto Jehovah the way of the city which thou hast fixed on, and of the house which I have builded for Thy name;
45 then Thou hast heard in the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and hast maintained their cause.
46 `When they sin against Thee (for there is not a man who sinneth not), and Thou hast been angry with them, and hast given them up before an enemy, and they have taken captive their captivity unto the land of the enemy far off or near;
47 and they have turned [it] back unto their heart in the land whither they have been taken captive, and have turned back, and made supplication unto Thee, in the land of their captors, saying, We have sinned and done perversely -- we have done wickedly;
48 yea, they have turned back unto Thee, with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive, and have prayed unto Thee the way of their land, which Thou gavest to their fathers, the city which Thou hast chosen, and the house which I have builded for Thy name:
49 `Then Thou hast heard in the heavens, the settled place of Thy dwelling, their prayer and their supplication, and hast maintained their cause,
50 and hast forgiven Thy people who have sinned against Thee, even all their transgressions which they have transgressed against Thee, and hast given them mercies before their captors, and they have had mercy [on] them --
51 (for Thy people and Thy inheritance [are] they, whom Thou didst bring out of Egypt, out of the midst of the furnace of iron) --
52 for Thine eyes being open unto the supplication of Thy servant, and unto the supplication of Thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all they call unto Thee for;
53 for Thou hast separated them to Thyself for an inheritance, out of all the peoples of the earth, as Thou didst speak by the hand of Moses Thy servant, in Thy bringing out our fathers from Egypt, O Lord Jehovah.'
54 And it cometh to pass, at Solomon's finishing to pray unto Jehovah all this prayer and supplication, he hath risen from before the altar of Jehovah, from bending on his knees, and his hands spread out to the heavens,
55 and he standeth and blesseth all the assembly of Israel [with] a loud voice, saying,
56 `Blessed [is] Jehovah who hath given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He hath spoken; there hath not fallen one word of all His good word, which He spake by the hand of Moses his servant.
57 `Jehovah our God is with us as He hath been with our fathers; He doth not forsake us nor leave us;
58 to incline our heart unto Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commands, and His statutes, and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers;
59 and these my words with which I have made supplication before Jehovah, are near unto Jehovah our God by day and by night, to maintain the cause of His servant, and the cause of His people Israel, the matter of a day in its day;
60 for all the peoples of the earth knowing that Jehovah, He [is] God; there is none else;
61 and your heart hath been perfect with Jehovah our God, to walk in His statutes, and to keep His commands, as [at] this day.'
62 And the king and all Israel with him are sacrificing a sacrifice before Jehovah;
63 and Solomon sacrificeth the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which he hath sacrificed to Jehovah, oxen, twenty and two thousand, and sheep, a hundred and twenty thousand; and the king and all the sons of Israel dedicate the house of Jehovah.
64 On that day hath the king sanctified the middle of the court that [is] before the house of Jehovah, for he hath made there the burnt-offering, and the present, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for the altar of brass that [is] before Jehovah [is] too little to contain the burnt-offering, and the present, and the fat of the peace-offerings.
65 And Solomon maketh, at that time, the festival -- and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entering in of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt -- before Jehovah our God, seven days and seven days; fourteen days.
66 On the eighth day he hath sent the people away, and they bless the king, and go to their tents, rejoicing and glad of heart for all the good that Jehovah hath done to David His servant, and to Israel His people.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
9.And it cometh to pass, at Solomon's finishing to build the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king, and all the desire of Solomon that he delighted to do,
2 that Jehovah appeareth unto Solomon a second time, as He appeared unto him in Gibeon,
3 and Jehovah saith unto him, `I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication with which thou hast made supplication before Me; I have hallowed this house that thou hast built to put My name there -- unto the age, and Mine eyes and My heart have been there all the days.
4 `And thou -- if thou dost walk before Me as David thy father walked, in simplicity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee -- My statutes and My judgments thou dost keep --
5 then I have established the throne of thy kingdom over Israel -- to the age, as I spake unto David thy father, saying, There is not cut off to thee a man from [being] on the throne of Israel.
6 `If ye at all turn back -- you and your sons -- from after Me, and keep not My commands -- My statutes, that I have set before you, and ye have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,
7 then I have cut off Israel from the face of the ground that I have given to them, and the house that I have hallowed for My name I send away from My presence, and Israel hath been for a simile and for a byword among all the peoples;
8 as to this house, [that] is high, every one passing by it is astonished, and hath hissed, and they have said, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus to this land and to this house?
9 and they have said, Because that they have forsaken Jehovah their God, who brought out their fathers from the land of Egypt, and they lay hold on other gods, and bow themselves to them, and serve them; therefore hath Jehovah brought in upon them all this evil.'
10 And it cometh to pass, at the end of twenty years, that Solomon hath built the two houses, the house of Jehovah, and the house of the king.
11 Hiram king of Tyre hath assisted Solomon with cedar-trees, and with fir-trees, and with gold, according to all his desire; then doth king Solomon give to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
12 And Hiram cometh out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon hath given to him, and they have not been right in his eyes,
13 and he saith, `What [are] these cities that thou hast given to me, my brother?' and one calleth them the land of Cabul unto this day.
14 And Hiram sendeth to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.
15 And this [is] the matter of the tribute that king Solomon hath lifted up, to build the house of Jehovah, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer,
16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt hath gone up and doth capture Gezer, and doth burn it with fire, and the Canaanite who is dwelling in the city he hath slain, and giveth it [with] presents to his daughter, wife of Solomon.)
17 And Solomon buildeth Gezer, and Beth-Horon the lower,
18 and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land;
19 and all the cities of stores that king Solomon hath, and the cities of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen, and the desire of Solomon that he desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
20 The whole of the people that is left of the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, who [are] not of the sons of Israel --
21 their sons who are left behind them in the land, whom the sons of Israel have not been able to devote -- he hath even lifted up [on] them a tribute of service unto this day.
22 And out of the sons of Israel Solomon hath not appointed a servant, for they [are] the men of war, and his servants, and his heads, and his captains, and the heads of his chariots, and his horsemen.
23 These [are] the heads of the officers who [are] over the work of Solomon, fifty and five hundred, those ruling among the people who are labouring in the work.
24 Only, the daughter of Pharaoh went up out of the city of David unto her house that [Solomon] built for her; then he built Millo.
25 And Solomon caused to ascend, three times in a year, burnt-offerings and peace-offerings on the altar that he built to Jehovah, and he perfumed it with that which [is] before Jehovah, and finished the house.
26 And a navy hath king Solomon made in Ezion-Geber, that is beside Eloth, on the edge of the Sea of Suph, in the land of Edom.
27 And Hiram sendeth in the navy his servants, shipmen knowing the sea, with servants of Solomon,
28 and they come in to Ophir and take thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and bring [it] in unto king Solomon.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
10. And the queen of Sheba is hearing of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Jehovah, and cometh to try him with enigmas,
2 and she cometh to Jerusalem, with a very great company, camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stone, and she cometh unto Solomon, and speaketh unto him all that hath been with her heart.
3 And Solomon declareth to her all her matters -- there hath not been a thing hid from the king that he hath not declared to her.
4 And the queen of Sheba seeth all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he built,
5 and the food of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the standing of his ministers, and their clothing, and his butlers, and his burnt-offering that he causeth to ascend in the house of Jehovah, and there hath not been in her any more spirit.
6 And she saith unto the king, `True hath been the word that I heard in my land, concerning thy matters and thy wisdom;
7 and I gave no credence to the words till that I have come, and my eyes see, and lo, it was not declared to me -- the half; thou hast added wisdom and goodness unto the report that I heard.
8 O the happiness of thy men, O the happiness of thy servants -- these -- who are standing before thee continually, who are hearing thy wisdom!
9 Jehovah thy God is blessed who delighted in thee, to put thee on the throne of Israel; in Jehovah's loving Israel to the age He doth set thee for king, to do judgment and righteousness.
10 And she giveth to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and spices very many, and precious stone; there came not like that spice any more for abundance that the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
11 And also, the navy of Hiram that bore gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir almug-trees very many, and precious stone;
12 and the king maketh the almug-trees a support for the house of Jehovah, and for the house of the king, and harps and psalteries for singers; there have not come such almug-trees, nor have there been seen [such] unto this day.
13 And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire that she asked, apart from that which he gave to her as a memorial of king Solomon, and she turneth and goeth to her land, she and her servants.
14 And the weight of the gold that hath come to Solomon in one year is six hundred sixty and six talents of gold,
15 apart from [that of] the tourists, and of the traffic of the merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the land.
16 And king Solomon maketh two hundred targets of alloyed gold -- six hundred of gold go up on the one target;
17 and three hundred shields of alloyed gold -- three pounds of gold go up on the one shield; and the king putteth them [in] the house of the forest of Lebanon.
18 And the king maketh a great throne of ivory, and overlayeth it with refined gold;
19 six steps hath the throne, and a round top [is] to the throne behind it, and hands [are] on this [side] and on that, unto the place of the sitting, and two lions are standing near the hands,
20 and twelve lions are standing there on the six steps, on this [side] and on that; it hath not been made so for any kingdom.
21 And all the drinking vessels of king Solomon [are] of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon [are] of refined gold -- there are none of silver; it was not reckoned in the days of Solomon for anything,
22 for a navy of Tarshish hath the king at sea with a navy of Hiram; once in three years cometh the navy of Tarshish, bearing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
23 And king Solomon is greater than any of the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom,
24 and all the earth is seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom that God hath put into his heart,
25 and they are bringing each his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, the matter of a year in a year.
26 And Solomon gathereth chariots, and horsemen, and he hath a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, and he placeth them in the cities of the chariot, and with the king in Jerusalem.
27 And the king maketh the silver in Jerusalem as stones, and the cedars he hath made as the sycamores that [are] in the low country, for abundance.
28 And the outgoing of the horses that king Solomon hath [is] from Egypt, and from Keveh; merchants of the king take from Keveh at a price;
29 and a chariot cometh up and cometh out of Egypt for six hundred silverlings, and a horse for fifty and a hundred, and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Aram; by their hand they bring out.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
11.And king Solomon hath loved many strange women, and the daughter of Pharaoh, females of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Zidon, [and] of the Hittites,
2 of the nations of which Jehovah said unto the sons of Israel, `Ye do not go in to them, and they do not go in to you; surely they turn aside your heart after their gods;' to them hath Solomon cleaved for love.
3 And he hath women, princesses, seven hundred, and concubines three hundred; and his wives turn aside his heart.
4 And it cometh to pass, at the time of the old age of Solomon, his wives have turned aside his heart after other gods, and his heart hath not been perfect with Jehovah his God, like the heart of David his father.
5 And Solomon goeth after Ashtoreth god[dess] of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites;
6 and Solomon doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, and hath not been fully after Jehovah, like David his father.
7 Then doth Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, in the hill that [is] on the front of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the sons of Ammon;
8 and so he hath done for all his strange women, who are perfuming and sacrificing to their gods.
9 And Jehovah sheweth Himself angry with Solomon, for his heart hath turned aside from Jehovah, God of Israel, who had appeared unto him twice,
10 and given a charge unto him concerning this thing, not to go after other gods; and he hath not kept that which Jehovah commanded,
11 and Jehovah saith to Solomon, `Because that this hath been with thee, and thou hast not kept My covenant and My statutes that I charged upon thee, I surely rend the kingdom from thee, and have given it to thy servant.
12 `Only, in thy days I do it not, for the sake of David thy father; out of the hand of thy son I rend it;
13 only all the kingdom I do not rend away; one tribe I give to thy son, for the sake of David My servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, that I have chosen.'
14 And Jehovah raiseth up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; of the seed of the king [is] he in Edom;
15 and it cometh to pass, in David's being with Edom, in the going up of Joab head of the host to bury the slain, that he smiteth every male in Edom --
16 for six months did Joab abide there, and all Israel, till the cutting off of every male in Edom --
17 and Hadad fleeth, he and certain Edomites, of the servants of his father, with him, to go in to Egypt, and Hadad [is] a little youth,
18 and they rise out of Midian, and come into Paran, and take men with them out of Paran, and come in to Egypt, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he giveth to him a house, and bread hath commanded for him, and land hath given to him.
19 And Hadad findeth grace in the eyes of Pharaoh exceedingly, and he giveth to him a wife, the sister of his own wife, sister of Tahpenes the mistress;
20 and the sister of Tahpenes beareth to him Genubath his son, and Tahpenes weaneth him within the house of Pharaoh, and Genubath is in the house of Pharaoh in the midst of the sons of Pharaoh.
21 And Hadad hath heard in Egypt that David hath lain with his fathers, and that Joab head of the host is dead, and Hadad saith unto Pharaoh, `Send me away, and I go unto my land.'
22 And Pharaoh saith to him, `But, what art thou lacking with me, that lo, thou art seeking to go unto thine own land?' and he saith, `Nay, but thou dost certainly send me away.'
23 And God raiseth to him an adversary, Rezon son of Eliadah, who hath fled from Hadadezer king of Zobah, his lord,
24 and gathereth unto himself men, and is head of a troop in David's slaying them, and they go to Damascus, and dwell in it, and reign in Damascus;
25 and he is an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, (besides the evil that Hadad [did]), and he cutteth off in Israel, and reigneth over Aram.
26 And Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda -- the name of whose mother [is] Zeruah, a widow woman -- servant to Solomon, he also lifteth up a hand against the king;
27 and this [is] the thing [for] which he lifted up a hand against the king: Solomon built Millo -- he shut up the breach of the city of David his father,
28 and the man Jeroboam [is] mighty in valour, and Solomon seeth the young man that he is doing business, and appointeth him over all the burden of the house of Joseph.
29 And it cometh to pass, at that time, that Jeroboam hath gone out from Jerusalem, and Ahijah the Shilonite, the prophet, findeth him in the way, and he is covering himself with a new garment; and both of them [are] by themselves in a field,
30 and Ahijah layeth hold on the new garment that [is] on him, and rendeth it -- twelve pieces,
31 and saith to Jeroboam, `Take to thee ten pieces, for thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, lo, I am rending the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and have given to thee the ten tribes,
32 and the one tribe he hath for My servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have fixed on, out of all the tribes of Israel.
33 `Because they have forsaken Me, and bow themselves to Ashtoreth, god[dess] of the Zidonians, to Chemosh god of Moab, and to Milcom god of the sons of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways, to do that which [is] right in Mine eyes, and My statutes and My judgments, like David his father.
34 `And I do not take the whole of the kingdom out of his hand, for prince I make him all days of his life, for the sake of David My servant whom I chose, who kept My commands and My statutes;
35 and I have taken the kingdom out of the hand of his son, and given it to thee -- the ten tribes;
36 and to his son I give one tribe, for there being a lamp to David My servant all the days before Me in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen to Myself to put My name there.
37 `And thee I take, and thou hast reigned over all that thy soul desireth, and thou hast been king over Israel;
38 and it hath been, if thou dost hear all that I command thee, and hast walked in My ways, and done that which is right in Mine eyes, to keep My statutes and My commands, as did David My servant, that I have been with thee, and have built for thee a stedfast house, as I built for David, and have given to thee Israel,
39 and I humble the seed of David for this; only, not all the days.'
40 And Solomon seeketh to put Jeroboam to death, and Jeroboam riseth and fleeth to Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and he is in Egypt till the death of Solomon.
41 And the rest of the matters of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written on the book of the matters of Solomon?
42 And the days that Solomon hath reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel [are] forty years,
43 and Solomon lieth with his fathers, and is buried in the city of David his father, and reign doth Rehoboam his son in his stead.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
12.And Rehoboam goeth to Shechem, for to Shechem hath all Israel come to make him king.
2 And it cometh to pass, at Jeroboam son of Nebat's hearing (and he [is] yet in Egypt where he hath fled from the presence of Solomon the king, and Jeroboam dwelleth in Egypt),
3 that they send and call for him; and they come -- Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel -- and speak unto Rehoboam, saying,
4 `Thy father made hard our yoke, and thou, now, make light [some] of the hard service of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we serve thee.'
5 And he saith unto them, `Go -- yet three days, and come back unto me;' and the people go.
6 And king Rehoboam consulteth with the elders who have been standing in the presence of Solomon his father, in his being alive, saying, `How are ye counselling to answer this people?'
7 And they speak unto him, saying, `If, to-day, thou art servant to this people, and hast served them, and answered them, and spoken unto them good words, then they have been to thee servants all the days.'
8 And he forsaketh the counsel of the elders which they counselled him, and consulteth with the lads who have grown up with him, who are standing before him;
9 and he saith unto them, `What are ye counselling, and we answer this people, who have spoken unto me, saying, Lighten [somewhat] of the yoke that thy father put upon us?'
10 And they speak unto him -- the lads who had grown up with him -- saying, `Thus dost thou say to this people who have spoken unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, and thou, make [it] light upon us; thus dost thou speak unto them, My little [finger] is thicker than the loins of my father;
11 and now, my father laid on you a heavy yoke, and I add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, and I -- I chastise you with scorpions.'
12 And they come -- Jeroboam and all the people -- unto Rehoboam, on the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, `Come back unto me on the third day.'
13 And the king answereth the people sharply, and forsaketh the counsel of the elders which they counselled him,
14 and speaketh unto them, according to the counsel of the lads, saying, `My father made your yoke heavy, and I add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, and I -- I chastise you with scorpions;'
15 and the king hearkened not unto the people, for the revolution was from Jehovah, in order to establish His word that Jehovah spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16 And all Israel see that the king hath not hearkened unto them, and the people send the king back word, saying, `What portion have we in David? yea, there is no inheritance in the son of Jesse; to thy tents, O Israel; now see thy house, O David!' and Israel goeth to its tents.
17 As to the sons of Israel, those dwelling in the cities of Judah -- over them reign doth Rehoboam.
18 And king Rehoboam sendeth Adoram who [is] over the tribute, and all Israel cast at him stones, and he dieth; and king Rehoboam hath strengthened himself to go up into a chariot to flee to Jerusalem;
19 and Israel transgresseth against the house of David unto this day.
20 And it cometh to pass, at all Israel's hearing that Jeroboam hath returned, that they send and call him unto the company, and cause him to reign over all Israel; none hath been after the house of David save the tribe of Judah alone.
21 And Rehoboam cometh to Jerusalem, and assembleth all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight with the house of Israel, to bring back the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 And the word of God is unto Shemaiah a man of God, saying,
23 `Speak unto Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people, saying,
24 Thus said Jehovah, Ye do not go up nor fight with your brethren the sons of Israel; turn back each to his house, for from Me hath this thing been;' and they hear the word of Jehovah, and turn back to go according to the word of Jehovah.
25 And Jeroboam buildeth Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and dwelleth in it, and goeth out thence, and buildeth Penuel;
26 and Jeroboam saith in his heart, `Now doth the kingdom turn back to the house of David --
27 if this people go up to make sacrifices in the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, then hath the heart of this people turned back unto their lord, unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they have slain me, and turned back unto Rehoboam king of Judah.'
28 And the king taketh counsel, and maketh two calves of gold, and saith unto them, `Enough to you of going up to Jerusalem; lo, thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.'
29 And he setteth the one in Beth-El, and the other he hath put in Dan,
30 and this thing becometh a sin, and the people go before the one -- unto Dan.
31 And he maketh the house of high places, and maketh priests of the extremities of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi;
32 and Jeroboam maketh a festival in the eighth month, in the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival that [is] in Judah, and he offereth on the altar -- so did he in Beth-El -- to sacrifice to the calves which he made, and he hath appointed in Beth-El the priests of the high places that he made.
33 And he offereth up on the altar that he made in Beth-El, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month that he devised of his own heart, and he maketh a festival to the sons of Israel, and offereth on the altar -- to make perfume.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
13.And lo, a man of God hath come from Judah, by the word of Jehovah, unto Beth-El, and Jeroboam is standing by the altar -- to make perfume;
2 and he calleth against the altar, by the word of Jehovah, and saith, `Altar! altar! thus said Jehovah, Lo, a son is born to the house of David -- Josiah his name -- and he hath sacrificed on thee the priests of the high places who are making perfume on thee, and bones of man are burnt on thee.'
3 And he hath given on that day a sign, saying, `This [is] the sign that Jehovah hath spoken, Lo, the altar is rent, and the ashes poured forth that [are] on it.'
4 And it cometh to pass, at the king's hearing the word of the man of God that he calleth against the altar in Beth-El, that Jeroboam putteth forth his hand from off the altar, saying, `Catch him;' and his hand is dried up that he hath put forth against him, and he is not able to bring it back unto him,
5 and the altar is rent, and the ashes poured forth from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of Jehovah.
6 And the king answereth and saith unto the man of God, `Appease, I pray thee, the face of Jehovah thy God, and pray for me, and my hand doth come back unto me;' and the man of God appeaseth the face of Jehovah, and the hand of the king cometh back unto him, and it is as at the beginning.
7 And the king speaketh unto the man of God, `Come in with me to the house, and refresh thyself, and I give to thee a gift.'
8 And the man of God saith unto the king, `If thou dost give to me the half of thine house, I do not go in with thee, nor do I eat bread, nor do I drink water, in this place;
9 for so He commanded me by the word of Jehovah, saying, Thou dost not eat bread nor drink water, nor turn back in the way that thou hast come.'
10 And he goeth on in another way, and hath not turned back in the way in which he came in unto Beth-El.
11 And a certain aged prophet is dwelling in Beth-El, and his son cometh and recounteth to him all the deed that the man of God hath done to-day in Beth-El, the words that he hath spoken unto the king, -- yea, they recount them to their father.
12 And their father saith unto them, `Where [is] this -- the way he hath gone?' and his sons see the way that the man of God hath gone who came from Judah.
13 And he saith unto his sons, `Saddle for me the ass,' and they saddle for him the ass, and he rideth on it,
14 and goeth after the man of God, and findeth him sitting under the oak, and saith unto him, `Art thou the man of God who hast come from Judah?' and he saith, `I [am].'
15 And he saith unto him, `Come with me to the house, and eat bread.'
16 And he saith, `I am not able to turn back with thee, and to go in with thee, nor do I eat bread or drink with thee water in this place,
17 for a word [is] unto me by the word of Jehovah, Thou dost not eat bread nor drink there water, thou dost not turn back to go in the way in which thou camest.'
18 And he saith to him, `I also [am] a prophet like thee, and a messenger spake unto me by the word of Jehovah, saying, Bring him back with thee unto thy house, and he doth eat bread and drink water;' -- he hath lied to him.
19 And he turneth back with him, and eateth bread in his house, and drinketh water.
20 And it cometh to pass -- they are sitting at the table -- and a word of Jehovah is unto the prophet who brought him back,
21 and he calleth unto the man of God who came from Judah, saying, `Thus said Jehovah, Because that thou hast provoked the mouth of Jehovah, and hast not kept the command that Jehovah thy God charged thee,
22 and turnest back and dost eat bread and drink water in the place of which He said unto thee, Thou dost not eat bread nor drink water -- thy carcase cometh not in unto the burying-place of thy fathers.'
23 And it cometh to pass, after his eating bread, and after his drinking, that he saddleth for him the ass, for the prophet whom he had brought back,
24 and he goeth, and a lion findeth him in the way, and putteth him to death, and his carcase is cast in the way, and the ass is standing near it, and the lion is standing near the carcase.
25 And lo, men are passing by, and see the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing near the carcase, and they come and speak [of it] in the city in which the old prophet is dwelling.
26 And the prophet who brought him back out of the way heareth and saith, `It [is] the man of God who provoked the mouth of Jehovah, and Jehovah giveth him to the lion, and it destroyeth him, and putteth him to death, according to the word of Jehovah that he spake to him.'
27 And he speaketh unto his sons saying, `Saddle for me the ass,' and they saddle [it].
28 And he goeth and findeth his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion are standing near the carcase -- the lion hath not eaten the carcase nor destroyed the ass.
29 And the prophet taketh up the carcase of the man of God, and placeth it on the ass, and bringeth it back, and the old prophet cometh in unto the city to mourn and to bury him,
30 and he placeth his carcase in his own grave, and they mourn for him, `Oh, my brother!'
31 And it cometh to pass, after his burying him, that he speaketh unto his sons, saying, `At my death -- ye have buried me in the burying-place in which the man of God is buried; near his bones place my bones;
32 for the word certainly cometh to pass that he called by the word of Jehovah concerning the altar which [is] Beth-El, and concerning all the houses of the high places that [are] in cities of Samaria.'
33 After this thing Jeroboam hath not turned from his evil way, and turneth back, and maketh of the extremities of the people priests of high places; he who is desirous he consecrateth his hand, and he is of the priests of the high places.
34 And in this thing is the sin of the house of Jeroboam, even to cut [it] off, and to destroy [it] from off the face of the ground.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
14.At that time was Abijah son of Jeroboam sick,
2 and Jeroboam saith to his wife, `Rise, I pray thee, and change thyself, and they know not that thou [art] wife of Jeroboam, and thou hast gone to Shiloh; lo, there [is] Ahijah the prophet; he spake unto me of [being] king over this people;
3 and thou hast taken in thy hand ten loaves, and crumbs, and a bottle of honey, and hast gone in unto him; he doth declare to thee what becometh of the youth.'
4 And the wife of Jeroboam doth so, and riseth, and goeth to Shiloh, and entereth the house of Ahijah, and Ahijah is not able to see, for his eyes have stood because of his age.
5 And Jehovah said unto Ahijah, `Lo, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to seek a word from thee concerning her son, for he is sick; thus and thus thou dost speak unto her, and it cometh to pass at her coming in, that she is making herself strange.'
6 And it cometh to pass, at Ahijah's hearing the sound of her feet [as] she came in to the opening, that he saith, `Come in, wife of Jeroboam, why is this -- thou art making thyself strange? and I am sent unto thee [with] a sharp thing:
7 Go, say to Jeroboam, Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Because that I have made thee high out of the midst of the people, and appoint thee leader over my people Israel,
8 and rend the kingdom from the house of David, and give it to thee, -- and thou hast not been as My servant David who kept My commands, and who walked after Me with all his heart, to do only that which [is] right in Mine eyes,
9 and thou dost evil above all who have been before thee, and goest, and makest to thee other gods and molten images to provoke Me to anger, and Me thou hast cast behind thy back:
10 `Therefore, lo, I am bringing in evil unto the house of Jeroboam, and have cut off to Jeroboam those sitting on the wall -- shut up and left -- in Israel, and have put away the posterity of the house of Jeroboam, as one putteth away the dung till its consumption;
11 him who dieth of Jeroboam in a city do the dogs eat, and him who dieth in a field do fowl of the heavens eat, for Jehovah hath spoken.
12 `And thou, rise, go to thy house; in the going in of thy feet to the city -- hath the lad died;
13 and all Israel have mourned for him, and buried him, for this one -- by himself -- cometh of Jeroboam unto a grave, because there hath been found in him a good thing towards Jehovah, God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.
14 `And Jehovah hath raised up for Him a king over Israel who cutteth off the house of Jeroboam this day -- and what? -- even now!
15 And Jehovah hath smitten Israel as the reed is moved by the waters, and hath plucked Israel from off this good ground that He gave to their fathers, and scattered them beyond the River, because that they made their shrines, provoking Jehovah to anger;
16 and He giveth up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam that he sinned, and that he caused Israel to sin.'
17 And the wife of Jeroboam riseth, and goeth, and cometh to Tirzah; she hath come in to the threshold of the house, and the youth dieth;
18 and they bury him, and mourn for him do all Israel, according to the word of Jehovah, that he spake by the hand of His servant Ahijah the prophet.
19 And the rest of the matters of Jeroboam, how he fought, and how he reigned, lo, they are written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel.
20 And the days that Jeroboam reigned [are] twenty and two years, and he lieth with his fathers, and reign doth Nadab his son in his stead.
21 And Rehoboam son of Solomon hath reigned in Judah; a son of forty and one years [is] Rehoboam in his reigning, and seventeen years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, the city that Jehovah chose to set His name there, out of all the tribes of Israel, and the name of his mother [is] Naamah the Ammonitess.
22 And Judah doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, and they make Him zealous above all that their fathers did by their sins that they have sinned.
23 And they build -- also they -- for themselves high places, and standing-pillars, and shrines, on every high height, and under every green tree;
24 and also a whoremonger hath been in the land; they have done according to all the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel.
25 And it cometh to pass, in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, gone up hath Shishak king of Egypt against Jerusalem,
26 and he taketh the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the house of the king, yea, the whole he hath taken; and he taketh all the shields of gold that Solomon made.
27 And king Rehoboam maketh in their stead shields of brass, and hath made [them] a charge on the hand of the heads of the runners, those keeping the opening of the house of the king,
28 and it cometh to pass, from the going in of the king to the house of Jehovah, the runners bear them, and have brought them back unto the chamber of the runners.
29 And the rest of the matters of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
30 And war hath been between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days;
31 and Rehoboam lieth with his fathers, and is buried with his fathers, in the city of David, and the name of his mother [is] Naamah the Ammonitess, and reign doth Abijam his son in his stead.
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
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