When the temple was finished, Solomon knelt down and prayed: O Lord, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded! Yet hear Thou in heaven, Thy dwelling place, every humble prayer that shall be sent up to Thee from this house! And when a stranger that is not of Israel shall come and pray towards this house, then hear Thou his prayers also! Solomon did not continue faithful to the end. He had taken many heathen women to be his wives, and when he was old they turned his heart, so that he built altars to the abominable idols of the heathens. And the people murmured because of heavy taxes and burdens. (1 Kings 3-11.) 39. The Kingdom Is Divided (975 years before Christ.) When Solomon was dead, all Israel came together and said to his son Rehoboam: Thy father made our yoke heavy, make thou it lighter, and we will make thee king. Rehoboam first took counsel from the old men, who had been the counsellors of his father. They said: If thou wilt hearken to the people this day they will serve thee all thy days. Then he consulted the young men who had grown up with him, and he answered according to their counsel: My father’s yoke was heavy, mine shall be heavier still; my father chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions. At this answer the people were provoked, and ten tribes chose Jeroboam for king, and only Judah and Benjamin clung to Rehoboam for David’s sake.--Samaria became the capital of the ten tribes, or the kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem the capital for the two tribes, or the kingdom of Judah. (1 Kings 12:1-24.) 40. The Kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam Jeroboam thought thus: If the people go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, their hearts will again turn to the house of David. He therefore set up two golden calves, and the people went and sacrificed to them. The Lord warned him, saying: Thou hast made thyself strange gods, therefore I will cut off thy house. His son became king, but was killed, and the whole family destroyed. There came kings of other families; but all were wicked and worshiped strange gods. (1 Kings 12:25-15:30.) 41. Ahab and Elijah The worst of all kings in Israel was Ahab. He married the wicked Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon, and built a temple for the idol Baal. The prophet Elijah foretold as a punishment a drought which lasted for three years, and the land thirsted for rain. Meanwhile Elijah dwelt with a poor widow in the city of Zarephath, and the meal in her jar was not consumed, and the cruse of oil failed not, and when her son died, Elijah prayed to the Lord, and the soul of the child came into him again.