An artisan of the highest order, Ramses has kept him in the palace even when all other Israelites have been banned. Bezalel blames El Shaddai for isolating him from his people.When Moses and Aaron appear one summer, and El Shaddai shakes Egypt to its core, Bezalel must reexamine his anger. Over the course of the next year, Bezalel’s life becomes intertwined with those of an Egyptian child-slave, the captain of the guard, and especially a beautiful young concubine.When spring arrives, all of them escape with the young nation of Israel. But that’s only the beginning...

    But his idyll ends abruptly when he rescues a wealthy and prominent Pharisee and his family from a brutal attack by rebels he calls friends. Nathan vows to right the wrong, never guessing it will lead to his hasty marriage to the Pharisee’s shy daughter, ALEXANDRA ONIAS. The tender passion he finds with his new wife only strengthens his need to seek justice for her and her family. A formidable warrior...Determined to end the bloody rebellion against Rome, Nathan picks up his sword again, seeking help from his friend Herod, the newly-minted governor of Galilee, and the man who will one day be called HEROD THE GREAT. Betrayed by friends and hunted by neighbors, Nathan and Alexandra fight side by side to protect their loved ones, their home, and their very lives. But the couple's blossoming love faces ruin when the rebels strike out and Nathan unleashes the full fury of... The Warrior.

    She sends him off to battle, where he suffers under the schemes of a notorious pagan general with an ambition for power and a lust for Valeria. In a scene based on true events, the evil Galerius kills Mauritius and his entire legion for their Christian faith. And in a shocking turn of events, the grieving Valeria is forced to become Galerius' wife against her will. Never has a marriage been set up for such failure. Valeria loathes her new husband, but he seems to undergo a change of heart, adopting a child for her and giving her power and authority, and even love. She struggles with the commitment she knows she must keep, and the love she knows she will never find again.

    When Michal falls for young David, the harpist who plays to calm her father, she has no idea what romance, adventures, and heartache await her. As listeners enter the colorful and unpredictable worlds of King Saul and King David, they will be swept up in this exciting and romantic story. Against the backdrop of opulent palace life, raging war, and desert escapes, Jill Eileen Smith takes her fans on an emotional roller-coaster ride as Michal deals with love, loss, and personal transformation as one of the wives of David. A sweeping tale of passion and drama, listeners will love this amazing story.

    . .Before she stole healing by touching the hem of his garment . . .Elianna is a young girl crushed by guilt. After her only brother is killed while in her care, Elianna tries to earn forgiveness by working for her father’s textile trade and caring for her family. When another tragedy places Elianna in sole charge of the business, her talent for design brings enormous success, but never the absolution she longs for. As her world unravels, she breaks off her betrothal to the only man she will ever love. Then illness strikes, isolating Elianna from everyone, stripping everything she has left.No physician can cure her. No end is in sight. Until she hears whispers of a man whose mere touch can heal. After so many years of suffering and disappointment, is it possible that one man could redeem the wounds of body . . . and soul?

    She's undignified and bad-tempered, and at age seventeen she's much too young. In addition, no prophet of Parne has ever been a girl. Worst of all, as Parne's elders often warn, if she agrees to become the Infinite's prophet, Ela knows she will die young.Yet she can't imagine living without Him. Determined to hear the Infinite's voice, Ela accepts the sacred vinewood branch and is sent to bring the Infinite's word to a nation torn apart by war. There she meets a young ambassador determined to bring his own justice for his oppressed people. As they form an unlikely partnership, Ela battles how to balance the leading of her heart with the leading of the Infinite.

    As a young shepherd girl, she accompanied her father to a Bethlehem stable where she held the baby Jesus. She watched Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt, met the strange visitors from the East who’d followed a star to Bethlehem, and saw Herod’s soldiers kill the children of her village.You can experience life in Roman Judea as the Jewish people struggle under the burden of Caesar's armies and Herod's cruelty. Watch false Messiahs rise and fall and see the fatal retribution that followed. Feel the pain of the innocent bystanders left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.Meet Shemu’el, the young man Rivkah believed God destined for her. But Rome tore them apart. Divided by fate, united by love, these two young people grow to separate adulthood, each with their dreams and desires unfulfilled, while the world of Rome and conquest moves inexorably on.Then, many years later, Rivkah finds herself in Jerusalem during the Passover. Trapped in a crowd, she is forced to watch three men being led to their execution. Her stomach drops when she realizes one of the men is Yeshua, the babe she held so many years before.Witness it all through the eyes of one who lived it.

    Princess Michal was the youngest daughter of ancient Israel's first king. Thirty-five centuries ago, she fell in love with a hero named David. As told in the books of Kings and Samuel in the Bible, Michal helps David escape from her insane father. King Saul punishes his daughter by forcing her to marry a sadistic drunkard. After being banished, the Princess unwillingly becomes a pawn in negotiations between Judea and Israel. She is shattered when she learns her family has been wiped out. Michal's faith, patriotism, and love for David sustain her through the war, infidelity, madness, abuse, and betrayal.

    Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman, becomes the wife of the Persian king, Ahasuerus, but when the king is tricked into persecuting the Jews by his minister she feels she must reveal the truth about her identity and save her people.

    Her story, the epic of nations. The Queen of Sheba. A powerful new novel of love, power, and the questions at the heart of existence by the author of the award-winning “brilliant” (Library Journal) and “masterful” (Publishers Weekly) Iscariot.There is the story you know: A foreign queen, journeying north with a caravan of riches to pay tribute to a king favored by the One God. The tale of a queen conquered by a king and god both before returning to her own land laden with gifts. That is the tale you were meant to believe. Which means most of it is a lie.In the tenth century BC, the new Queen of Sheba has inherited her father’s throne and all its riches at great personal cost. Her realm stretches west across the Red Sea into land wealthy in gold, frankincense, and spices. But now new alliances to the North threaten the trade routes that are the lifeblood of her nation. Solomon, the brash new king of Israel famous for his wealth and wisdom, will not be denied the tribute of the world—or of Sheba’s queen. With tensions ready to erupt within her own borders and the future of her nation at stake, the one woman who can match wits with Solomon undertakes the journey of a lifetime in a daring bid to test and win the king. But neither ruler has anticipated the clash of agendas, gods, and passion that threatens to ignite—and ruin—them both. An explosive retelling of the legendary king and queen and the nations that shaped history.

    That went against her faith. Her own God asked her to walk away. That went against her calling.Until she is ordered by Pharaoh to kill newborn Hebrew males, Puah thought she had an easy profession. If she obeys, it means the deaths of untold innocents. If she doesn't, it means her death.As Pharaohs rise and fall, Puah’s people are forced into deeper oppression. Men are forced labor and women are sent to serve their Egyptian counterparts. Only Puah and her recently acquired guild are free. For now.Moses, one of the hidden babies who was adopted by the Princess, is being groomed to take over. When he denies his right to rule and mistakenly kills an Egyptian, he is forced to flee into the desert.Forty years later, he returns as the instrument of God.With her medical training and passion for helping pregnant women, Puah places herself in the heart of hell on earth as the intensity of plagues increases.After the last plague falls, she must make the decision to stay in Egypt or face the unknown wilderness. Puah’s heart has always been for the women of Egypt. How can she obey God to walk away from them in their greatest hour of need? She can only make the choice once and morning won’t wait.

    Her community offers her love and support after the untimely death of her husband, but an Englisher offers her the chance of a new life after her unexpected tragedy. Wealthy businessman Trey Peterson is surprised by his attraction to the gentle Amish woman who works as a housekeeper in the Lancaster Grand Hotel. They share a common bond of loss and are able to offer each other comfort and support as they journey through their grief. Joshua Glick wants nothing more than to offer his friendship and love to Hannah and her family. Not only is he her late husband's brother and business partner, he has always been in love with Hannah. A Hopeful Heart is filled with surprising twists as Hannah tries to balance her life in the Amish community and her growing love for an outsider.

    The daughter of a powerful lord, Sarah balks at the marriage her father has planned for her. On her wedding day, she impulsively flees to the vast, empty marshes outside the city walls, where she meets a young man named Abram, son of a tribe of outsiders. Drawn to this exotic stranger, Sarah spends one night with him and reluctantly returns to her father’s house. But on her return, she secretly drinks a poisonous potion that will make her barren and thus unfit for marriage.Many years later, Abram returns to Ur and discovers that the lost, rebellious girl from the marsh has been transformed into a splendid woman—the high priestess of the goddess Ishtar. But Sarah gives up her exalted life to join Abram’s tribe and follow the one true God, an invisible deity who speaks only to Abram. It is then that her journey truly begins.From the great ziggurat of Ishtar to the fertile valleys of Canaan to the bedchamber of the mighty Pharaoh himself, Sarah’s story reveals an ancient world full of beauty, intrigue, and miracles.

    The book starts out with Bathsheba as a young girl and David as a strong willed rebellious military leader.  It details the way they meet and follows them all the way through their difficulties.

    Tall and slender, the young girl had eyes that shone like a stream of gold. She knew nothing about her past, except that she had always been a slave.