What the Bible Says About the Meaning of Kings

Scripture

⁴ Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah
⁵ and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
⁶ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord.
⁷ And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
⁸ According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.
⁹ Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
¹⁰ So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him.
¹¹ He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots.
¹² He will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.
¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
¹⁴ He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.
¹⁵ He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.
¹⁶ He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work.
¹⁷ He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.
¹⁸ And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
¹⁹ But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us,
²⁰ that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
²¹ And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the ears of the Lord.
²² And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

1 Samuel 8:4-22

1 Kings 3:5-14: ⁵ At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”
⁶ And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day.
⁷ And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.
⁸ And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.
⁹ Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.
¹¹ And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,
¹² behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
¹³ I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.
¹⁴ And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.

1 Kings 9:1-9: ⁴ And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules,
² that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
³ And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
⁴ And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules,
⁵ then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
⁶ But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,
⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
⁸ And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’
⁹ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’

1 Kings 10:1-13: ²³ Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
² She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind.
³ And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her.
⁴ And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,
⁵ the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
⁶ She said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom,
⁷ So I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.
⁸ Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!
⁹ Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
¹⁰ Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
¹¹ Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones.
¹² The king also made of the almug wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.
¹³ King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked, besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.

1 Kings 11:1-13: ³ He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
² from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.
³ He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
⁴ For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
⁵ For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
⁶ So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done.
⁷ Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
⁸ So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done.
⁹ And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
¹⁰ and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded.
¹¹ Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.
¹² Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
¹³ However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.

2 Kings 18:1-8: ¹ In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.
² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
³ And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
⁴ He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).
⁵ He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.
⁶ For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses.
⁷ And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.
⁸ He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

2 Kings 23:1-25: ²³ Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him.
² And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.
³ And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.
⁴ And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
⁵ And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens.
⁶ And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.
⁷ And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.
⁸ And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city.
⁹ Yet the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
¹⁰ And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.
¹¹ And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
¹² And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
¹³ And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
¹⁴ And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.
¹⁵ Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah.
¹⁶ And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things.
¹⁷ Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.”
¹⁸ And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.
¹⁹ And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel.
²⁰ He sacrificed all the priests of the high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
²¹ And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
²² Neither in the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been kept.
²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.
²⁴ Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.
²⁵ Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

2 Chronicles 1:7-12: ⁷ In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, “Ask what I shall give you.”
⁸ And Solomon said to God, “You have shown great and steadfast love to David my father, and have made me king in his place.
⁹ Now, O Lord God, let your promise to David my father be established, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.
¹⁰ Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?”
¹¹ God answered Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked long life, but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may govern my people over whom I have made you king,
¹² wisdom and knowledge are granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, such as none of the kings had who were before you, and none after you shall have.

2 Chronicles 9:1-12: ¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind.
² And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her.
³ And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,
⁴ the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
⁵ And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom,
⁶ Moreover, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
⁷ And I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me; you surpass the report that I heard.
⁸ Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God! Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness.”
⁹ Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
¹⁰ Moreover, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum wood and precious stones.
¹¹ Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones.
¹² And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what she had brought to the king. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.

2 Chronicles 34:1-33: ¹ Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in the ways of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images.
⁴ And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
⁵ He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
⁶ And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around.
⁷ he broke down the altars and beat the Asherim and the images into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
⁸ Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.
⁹ They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁰ And they put it in the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord gave it for repairing and restoring the house.
¹¹ They gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy quarried stone, and timber for binders and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had let go to ruin.
¹² And the men did the work faithfully. Over them were set Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to have oversight. These Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music,
¹³ They were over the workmen and have oversight of the house of the Lord, and they repaired the house of the Lord after it had been neglected.
¹⁴ While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given through Moses.
¹⁵ And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.
¹⁶ Shaphan brought the Book to the king, and further reported to the king, “All that was committed to your servants they are doing.
¹⁷ And they have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have given it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.”
¹⁸ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it before the king.
¹⁹ And when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes.
²⁰ Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying,
²¹ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.”
²² So Hilkiah and those whom the king had sent went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter) and spoke to her to that effect.
²³ She said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me,
²⁴ Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah.
²⁵ because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.
²⁶ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard,
²⁷ because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord.
²⁸ Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’” And they brought back word to the king.
²⁹ Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
³⁰ And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.
³¹ And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.
³² Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
³³ And Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.

Psalm 2:1-12: ¹ Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
³ “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
⁵ Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
⁶ As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.
⁷ I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Psalm 72:1-20: ¹ Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
² May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!
³ Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
⁴ May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!
⁵ May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
⁶ May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth!
⁷ In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
⁸ May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!
⁹ May the nomads of the desert bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
¹⁰ May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts!
¹¹ May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!
¹² For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.
¹³ He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.
¹⁴ From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.
¹⁵ Long may he live; may gold of Sheba be given to him! May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day!
¹⁶ May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave. May its fruit be like Lebanon, and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field!
¹⁷ May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!
¹⁸ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
¹⁹ Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!
²⁰ The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.

Proverbs 16:10-15: ¹⁰ An oracle is on the lips of a king; his mouth does not sin in judgment.
¹¹ A just balance and scales are the Lord’s; all the weights in the bag are his work.
¹² It is an abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by righteousness.
¹³ Righteous lips are the delight of a king,
and he loves him who speaks what is right.
¹⁴ The wrath of a king is as messengers of death,
but a wise man will appease it.
¹⁵ In the light of a king’s face there is life,
and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain.

Proverbs 21:1-4: ¹ The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
² Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the heart.
³ To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
⁴ Haughty eyes and a proud heart,
the lamp of the wicked, are sin.

Isaiah 9:6-7: ⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 32:1-8: ¹ Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
and princes will rule in justice.
² Each will be like a hiding place from the wind,
a shelter from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry place,
like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
³ Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
⁴ The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
⁵ The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
⁶ For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
⁷ As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil; he plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.
⁸ But he who is noble plans noble things,
and on noble things he stands.

Jeremiah 23:5-6: ⁵ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Ezekiel 37:24-28: ²⁴ “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.”
²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever.
²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.
²⁷ My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
²⁸ Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.

Daniel 2:36-45: ³⁶ This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.
³⁷ You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory,
³⁸ And wherever the children of man dwell, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens he has given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.
³⁹ Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.
⁴⁰ And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these.
⁴¹ And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.
⁴² And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.
⁴³ As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.
⁴⁴ And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
⁴⁵ just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold.

Daniel 7:13-14: ¹³ I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
¹⁴ And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Hosea 3:4-5: ⁴ For the people of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.
⁵ Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

Micah 5:2-5: ² But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
³ Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.
⁴ And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
⁵ And he shall be their peace.

Zechariah 9:9-10: ⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
¹⁰ I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Matthew 2:1-12: Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,
² saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;
⁴ and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
⁶ “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
⁷ Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.
⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”
⁹ After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
¹¹ And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
¹² And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Matthew 21:1-11: ¹ Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
² saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
³ If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”
⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
⁵ “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
⁸ Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
⁹ And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
¹⁰ And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”
¹¹ And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Luke 1:26-33: ²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

John 18:33-37: ³³ So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
³⁴ Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”
³⁵ Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”
³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
³⁷ Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Acts 13:21-23: ²¹ Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
²² And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’
²³ Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

1 Timothy 6:13-16: ¹³ I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,
¹⁴ to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
¹⁵ which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
¹⁶ who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Revelation 1:4-6: ⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
⁵ and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.
⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 19:11-16: ¹¹ Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
¹² His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
¹³ He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
¹⁴ And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
¹⁵ From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.