And they said, Come, let us build a city and a tower with its head in the heavens, and make a name for ourselves, that we not be scattered on the face of all the earth.
And during his lifetime Absalom had taken and set up for himself a standingpillar, which is in the King’s Valley. For he said, I have no son to cause my name to be remembered. And he called the standing pillar by his name and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.
A treaty between you and me, between my father and your father! Behold, I have sent you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha the king of Israel, that he go up from me.
And he built towers in the wilderness, and dug many wells, for he had many cattle, both in the low country and in the plain; also he had farmers and vinedressers in the mountains, and in Carmel; for he was a lover of the earth.
And Solomon had brought up Pharaoh’s daughter from the city of David to the house that he had built for her. For he said, My wife shall not live in the house of David the king of Israel, for they are holy, to whom the Ark of Jehovah has come.
Their inward thought is that their houses shall last forever, their dwellingplaces to generation and generation; they call their lands after their own names.
Let us rise up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flowers and whether the blossom opens, and the pomegranates bud forth. There I will give my loves to You.
The king answered and said, Is this not great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?