God’s Promise and Warning

9 ^(A)Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and ^(B)the king’s house, and ^(C)all ^[a]that Solomon desired to do, ² that ^(D)the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ And the Lord said to him, “^(E)I have heard your prayer and your plea which you have offered before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built, ^(F)by putting My name there forever, and ^(G)My eyes and My heart will be there ^[b]always. ⁴ As for you, ^(H)if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and honesty, acting in accordance with everything that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My ordinances, ⁵ then ^(I)I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I ^[c]promised to your father David, saying, ‘^[d]You shall not be deprived of a man on the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “^(J)But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have placed before you, but you go and serve other gods and worship them, ^7 (K)then I will cut Israel off from the land which I have given them, and ^(L)the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will ^[e]expel from My sight. So ^(M)Israel will become a saying and an object of derision among all peoples. ⁸ And this house will become ^(N)a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and ^[f]hiss and say, ‘^(O)Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and this house?’ ⁹ And they will say, ‘^(P)Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they ^[g]adopted other gods and worshiped and served them, for that reason the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’”

Cities Given to Hiram

^10 (Q)Now it came about ^(R)at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house ¹¹ (Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and juniper timber and gold, ^[h]satisfying all his desire), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. ¹² So Hiram left Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they ^[i]did not please him. ¹³ And he said, “What are these cities which you have given me, my brother?” So ^[j]they have been called the land of ^[k](S)Cabul to this day. ^14 (T)And Hiram sent to the king ^[l]120 talents of gold.

¹⁵ Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon ^(U)conscripted to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the ^[m](V)Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, ^(W)Hazor, ^(X)Megiddo, and ^(Y)Gezer. ¹⁶ For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and overthrown Gezer and burned it with fire, and killed the ^(Z)Canaanites who lived in the city; and he had ^(AA)given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷ So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and the lower ^(AB)Beth-horon, ¹⁸ and ^(AC)Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, ¹⁹ and all the storage cities which Solomon had, that is, ^(AD)the cities for ^[n]his chariots and the cities for ^[o](AE)his horsemen, and ^[p](AF)everything that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land ^[q]under his rule. ²⁰ As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel, ^21 (AG)their descendants who were left after them in the land, ^(AH)whom the sons of Israel were unable to completely eliminate, ^(AI)from them Solomon conscripted ^(AJ)forced laborers, as they are to this day. ²² But Solomon ^(AK)did not make slaves of the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his servants, his commanders, his charioteers, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen.

²³ These were the ^[r](AL)chief officers who were in charge of Solomon’s work, 550, ^(AM)who ruled over the people doing the work.

²⁴ As soon as ^(AN)Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her, ^(AO)he then built the Millo.

²⁵ Now ^(AP)three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for the Lord, burning incense with them on the altar which was before the Lord. So he finished the house.

²⁶ King Solomon also built a ^(AQ)fleet of ships in ^(AR)Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the ^[s]Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ^27 (AS)And Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, sailors who knew the sea, along with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸ And they went to ^(AT)Ophir and received ^[t]420 talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

Solomon’s Activities and Accomplishments

8 ^(A)Now it came about at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, ² that he built the cities which Huram had given ^[a]him, and settled the sons of Israel there.

³ Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it. ⁴ He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities which he had built in Hamath. ⁵ He also built upper ^(B)Beth-horon and lower Beth-horon, which were ^(C)fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars; ⁶ and Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for ^[b]his chariots and cities for ^[c]his horsemen, and everything that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and all the land ^[d]under his rule.

^7 (D)All of the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, ⁸ that is, from their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel had not destroyed, ^(E)Solomon raised them as forced laborers to this day. ⁹ But Solomon did not make slaves from the sons of Israel for his work; for they were men of war, his chief captains and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁰ These were the chief ^[e]officers of King Solomon, 250 who ruled over the people.

^11 (F)Then Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, because ^[f]the places where the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”

¹² Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on ^(G)the altar of the Lord which he had built in front of the porch; ¹³ and ^(H)he did so according to the daily rule, offering them up ^(I)according to the commandment of Moses, for ^(J)the Sabbaths, ^(K)the new moons, and the ^(L)three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.

¹⁴ Now according to the ordinance of his father David, he appointed ^(M)the divisions of the priests for their service, and ^(N)the Levites for their duties of praise and ministering before the priests according to the daily rule, and ^(O)the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for this is what ^(P)David, the man of God, had commanded. ¹⁵ And they did not deviate from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any matter or regarding the storehouses.

¹⁶ So all the work of Solomon was carried out ^[g]from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to ^(Q)Ezion-geber and to ^(R)Eloth on the seashore in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ And by his servants Huram sent him ships and servants who knew the sea; and they went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir and ^(S)took from there ^[h]450 talents of gold, and brought it to King Solomon.