¹⁴The Lord raised up Hadad the Edomite as a rival to Solomon. Hadad was from the Edomite royal family. ¹⁵When David had conquered Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, went to bury those killed in battle and killed every male in Edom. ¹⁶(Joab and all Israel stayed there six months until they had destroyed every male in Edom.) ¹⁷Hadad was a young boy at the time. He and some of his father’s Edomite servants fled to Egypt. ¹⁸They left Midian and went to Paran. Taking some men from Paran with them, they went to Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). Pharaoh gave Hadad a home, a food allowance, and land.

¹⁹Pharaoh approved of Hadad. So he gave Hadad his sister-in-law, the sister of Queen Tahpenes, to be Hadad’s wife. ²⁰Tahpenes’ sister had a son ⸤named⸥ Genubath. Tahpenes presented the boy to Pharaoh in the palace, and Genubath lived in the palace among Pharaoh’s children.

²¹When Hadad heard in Egypt that David had lain down in death with his ancestors and that Joab, the commander of the army, had died, he said to Pharaoh, “Let me go to my own country.”

²²Pharaoh asked him, “What don’t you have here that makes you eager to go home?”

“Nothing,” he said. “But let me leave anyway.”

²³God also raised up Rezon, son of Eliada, as a rival to Solomon. Rezon fled from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah, ²⁴after David killed the men of Zobah. Rezon gathered men and became the leader of a troop of warriors. They went to Damascus, settled there, and ruled a kingdom in Damascus. ²⁵In addition to the trouble that Hadad caused, Rezon was Israel’s rival as long as Solomon lived. He ruled Aram and despised Israel.

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