King Hiram’s Twenty Towns

¹⁰ At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord’s temple and the royal palace^(A)— ¹¹ King Hiram of Tyre^(B) having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold^(C) for his every wish^(D)—King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee. ¹² So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them. ¹³ So he said, “What are these towns you’ve given me, my brother?” So he called them the Land of Cabul,^[a] as they are still called today.^{(E) 14} Now Hiram had sent the king nine thousand pounds^[b] of gold.^(F)

Solomon’s Forced Labor

¹⁵ This is the account of the forced labor^(G) that King Solomon had imposed to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces,^(H) the wall of Jerusalem,^(I) and Hazor,^(J) Megiddo,^(K) and Gezer.^{(L) 16} Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He then burned it, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.^{(M) 17} Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,^{(N) 18} Baalath,^(O) Tamar^[c][d] in the Wilderness of Judah, ¹⁹ all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities,^(P) the cavalry cities,^(Q) and whatever Solomon desired to build^(R) in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

²⁰ As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites— ²¹ their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely^(S)—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is still this way today.^{(T) 22} But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to slavery;^(U) they were soldiers, his servants, his commanders, his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. ²³ These were the deputies^(V) who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who supervised the people doing the work.^(W)