2 Chronicles 1-9

New Catholic Bible

The Reign of Solomon

Chapter 1

Solomon’s Wisdom.^{[a] 1} Solomon, the son of David, strengthened his hold on the kingdom, for the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly powerful.

² After summoning all Israel, Solomon addressed the commanders of units of thousands and hundreds, the judges, and all the leaders in Israel, the heads of families. ³ Then, accompanied by the entire assembly, he went to the high place at Gibeon where God’s meeting tent was located, the tent that Moses, the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness. ⁴ However, David had brought up the Ark of the Covenant from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it, having pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.

⁵ In addition, the bronze altar that Bezalel, the son of Hur, had made was also there in front of the tabernacle of the Lord, and Solomon and the assembly frequently consulted him. ⁶ Solomon also offered one thousand burnt offerings upon the bronze altar which was at the meeting tent.

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him: “Ask what you wish me to grant you.” ⁸ Solomon replied to God: “You have shown great and faithful love to my father, and you have granted me the privilege of succeeding him as king. ⁹ O Lord God, let your promise to my father David now be fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰ Therefore, now grant me wisdom and knowledge to lead this people, for without your help who can rule this great people of yours?”

¹¹ Then God replied to Solomon: “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth or possessions or honor, or for the lives of those who are hostile to you, or even for a long life for yourself, but instead have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself so that you may govern my people over whom I have designated you to be king, ¹² wisdom and knowledge will be granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and glory such as no king before you has had and none after you shall be granted.”^[b]

¹³ Solomon’s Wealth.^[c] Then Solomon returned to Jerusalem from the meeting tent to the high place at Gibeon, and he reigned as king over Israel. ¹⁴ He accumulated vast numbers of chariots and horses, amassing fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses. He stationed some in the chariot cities, and the rest with the king at Jerusalem.

¹⁵ In Jerusalem the king made silver and gold as common as stones, and he made cedars as plentiful as the sycamores in the lowlands. ¹⁶ Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Cilicia, obtained by the king’s traders from Cilicia at the prevailing price. ¹⁷ The traders would import chariots from Egypt for six hundred shekels apiece, and horses from Cilicia for one hundred and fifty shekels apiece. They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the Arameans.

Chapter 2

Final Preparations for the Temple. ¹ Solomon then resolved to build a house to honor the Lord as well as a palace for himself. ² Therefore, he conscripted seventy thousand men to carry the stone and eighty thousand men to serve as stonecutters, as well as three thousand six hundred men to oversee them.

³ Then Solomon sent this message to King Huram of Tyre: “Some time ago you dealt with my father David, sending him cedars to build a palace in which he would dwell. ⁴ Now I am preparing to build a house in honor of the Lord, my God, and to consecrate it to him so that fragrant incense can be burned before him, along with the perpetual display of the loaves of permanent offering, for burnt offerings morning and evening, and for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the festivals of the Lord, our God, as is ordained forever for Israel.

⁵ “The house that I intend to build must be large, since our God is greater than all other gods. ⁶ But who is really able to build a house for him when the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? And who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?

⁷ “Therefore, now send me an artisan who is highly skilled at working in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, and who is expert in the art of engraving. I want him to work with the skilled craftsmen in Judah and Jerusalem who were provided by my father David. ⁸ Also send me cedar, cypress, and juniper timber from Lebanon, for I am well aware that your servants are skilled in felling the trees of Lebanon.

“My servants will work with your servants ⁹ in order to prepare for me a vast quantity of timber, for the house that I intend to build will be great in size and a marvel to behold. ¹⁰ Furthermore, I will provide for your servants the woodcutters who fell the trees, twenty thousand kors of wheat, and twenty thousand kors of barley, along with twenty thousand measures of wine and twenty thousand measures of oil.”^[d]

¹¹ In a letter that he sent to King Solomon in response, King Huram of Tyre replied: “Because of the love that the Lord has for his people, he has appointed you as their king.” ¹² Then Huram went on to say: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth. He has given King David a wise son blessed with intelligence and discernment who will build a house for the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

¹³ “I have now sent you Huram-abi,^[e] a skilled artisan and a man of intelligence. ¹⁴ He is the son of a Danite woman and of a father from Tyre. He is skilled in the art of working in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics and fine linen. He also is competent to do all sorts of engraving and to execute any design that may be assigned to him, in collaboration with your own skilled craftsmen and those of my lord David, your father.

¹⁵ “And now, let my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, oil, and wine which he has promised. ¹⁶ We shall cut down all the timber you need from Lebanon and float it all down to you as rafts by sea to Joppa. Then it will be your responsibility to transport it to Jerusalem.”

¹⁷ Shortly thereafter Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were residing in the land of Israel, similar to the census that his father David had taken. There were found to be one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred aliens. ¹⁸ Solomon designated seventy thousand of them to be porters, eighty thousand to be stonecutters in the hill country, and three thousand six hundred as overseers to ensure that the people were doing the work assigned to them.

Chapter 3

Construction of the Temple.^{[f] 1} Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the site that David had chosen, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ² He commenced building it on the second day of the second month of the fourth year of his reign.

³ These are the measurements specified by Solomon for building the house of God. According to the old standard of measurement, its length was sixty cubits and its width was twenty cubits.^{[g] 4} The vestibule was twenty cubits long, spanning the entire breadth of the house of God, and its height was also twenty cubits.

⁵ He overlaid the nave with cypress, which he covered with fine gold and embossed with palms and chains. ⁶ He also adorned the house beautifully with settings of precious stones and with gold from Parvaim. ⁷ Then he overlaid the house with gold, including its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors, and he carved cherubim on the walls.

⁸ He also made the Holy of Holies. Its length, corresponding to the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid all of it with six hundred talents of fine gold. ⁹ The weight of the gold nails was fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

¹⁰ For the Holy of Holies he made two carved cherubim which were then overlaid with gold. ¹¹ The wings of the cherubim^[h] together had a total span of twenty cubits. A wing of one cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the building, while the other wing reached out to meet a wing of the other cherub. ¹² Similarly, one wing of the second cherub also extended five cubits to touch the other wall of the building, while its other wing reached out to meet a wing of the first cherub.

¹³ The combined wings of these two cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood with their feet on the ground, facing the nave. ¹⁴ Solomon also made the curtain^[i] of purple, crimson, and blue fabrics and fine linen and embroidered it with winged creatures.

¹⁵ In front of the temple he erected two pillars that totaled thirty-five cubits high, with a capital measuring five cubits on the top of each pillar. ¹⁶ Next he made chains in the form of a necklace and put them on the tops of the pillars, and then he carved one hundred pomegranates and attached them to the chains. ¹⁷ Finally, he erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left. The one on the right he called Jachin, and the one on the left he called Boaz.

Chapter 4

¹ Then Solomon made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high. ² After that, he made the sea of cast metal. It was circular in shape, ten cubits from rim to rim, and five cubits high.

³ Under the sea and completely encircling the thirty cubits of its circumference there was a ring of figures of oxen in two rows, ten to the cubit. ⁴ It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The hindquarters of each faced inward, and the sea was set on them. ⁵ It was a hand’s breadth in thickness, and its rim was like that of a cup—lily-shaped. It could hold three thousand baths.^[j]

⁶ He also made ten basins for washing, placing five on the right and five on the left. These were to be employed to rinse what would be used for the burnt offerings. However, the sea was for the priests to wash in.

⁷ Then he made ten lampstands of gold as prescribed and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. ⁸ He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left, as well as one hundred basins of gold.^[k]

⁹ Next he made the court of the priests and the great courtyard with its gates. After he had overlaid the doors with bronze, ¹⁰ he placed the sea off to the southeast on the right-hand side of the temple.

¹¹ Meanwhile Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the basins. He thus completed all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon on the temple of God: ¹² the two pillars, the bowls, and the two capitals that were on the top of the pillars; the two sets of filigree to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; ¹³ the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, with two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover two bowl-shaped capitals surmounting the two pillars; ¹⁴ the ten stands and the basins on the stands; ¹⁵ the one sea and the twelve oxen that supported it; ¹⁶ likewise the pots, the shovels, and the basins—all of these articles Huram-abi made of burnished bronze cast for King Solomon for the house of the Lord.

¹⁷ Then the king had them cast in the foundry between Succoth and Zeredah in the plain of the Jordan. ¹⁸ Solomon made all these objects in great quantities, and as a result, the weight of the bronze was not determined.

¹⁹ Solomon had all of these articles made for the Lord God: the golden altar, the tables for the bread of the Presence, ^20 [l]the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn before the inner sanctuary as prescribed; ²¹ the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of the purest gold; ²² the snuffers, the bowls, the ladles, and the firepans of pure gold. As for the entrance to the temple, the inner doors to the Most Holy Place and the doors to the nave of the temple were of gold.

Chapter 5

Dedication of the Temple. ¹ When all the work that Solomon had done was completed, he brought in the treasures that his father David had dedicated, and he deposited the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God.

² Then Solomon summoned the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes and the princes of the families of Israel, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the City of David, which is Zion. ³ All the men of Israel assembled before the king at the festival of the seventh month.

⁴ When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites lifted up the Ark, ⁵ and the priests and the Levites carried it and the meeting tent with all the sacred vessels that it contained. ⁶ King Solomon and the entire congregation of Israel who were present with him assembled before the Ark and sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or reckoned.

⁷ Then the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place where the Ark stood, so that they sheltered the Ark and its poles.

⁹ The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. They are still there to this very day.^{[m] 10} There was nothing inside the Ark aside from the two tablets which Moses had put there at Horeb when the Lord had made a covenant with the people of Israel after they had departed from Egypt.

¹¹ When the priests emerged from the Holy Place—for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves without regard to their divisions— ¹² all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, with their sons and brothers, dressed themselves in fine linen, with cymbals, lyres, and harps. They were standing to the east of the altar with one hundred and twenty priests, blowing the trumpets.

¹³ The trumpeters and the singers joined in unison to offer praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the volume was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise of the Lord:

the temple was filled with the cloud of the glory of the Lord, ¹⁴ and as a result of the cloud the priests could not continue to minister, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.

Chapter 6

¹ Then Solomon said:

³ Then the king turned around and blessed the entire assembly of Israelites as they stood before him. ⁴ He said: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with his hand what he promised with his mouth to my father David, when he said: ⁵ ‘From the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any of the tribes of Israel in which to have a temple built to honor my name, nor did I choose any man to be the ruler over my people Israel. ⁶ However, now I have chosen Jerusalem, where I shall be honored, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.’

⁷ “My father David was determined to build a temple to honor the Lord, the God of Israel. ⁸ However, the Lord said to him: ‘In wishing to build a temple in my honor, you did well. ⁹ But nevertheless you shall not build the temple. Rather, your son who shall be born to you shall be the one who will build the temple in my name.’

¹⁰ “Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made. For I have succeeded my father David and taken his place on the throne of Israel, as the Lord foretold. In addition, I have built the temple to honor the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹¹ There I have installed the Ark containing the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.”

¹² Solomon’s Prayer.^[o] Then, in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord and spread out his hands. ¹³ Solomon had made a bronze platform, measuring five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, which he directed to be placed in the center of the courtyard, and he stood on it. Then he knelt down^[p] in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.

¹⁴ “Lord, God of Israel,” he said, “there is no God like you in heaven or on earth, as you keep your covenant and show steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart. ¹⁵ You have kept the promise you made to my father David. Indeed, what you promised him with your words you have fulfilled by your deeds.

¹⁶ “And now, Lord, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant David, my father, when you said: ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to sit in my presence on the throne of Israel, provided that your sons are careful to keep to their ways and conform to my law, as you yourself have done.’ ¹⁷ Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, let this promise be confirmed which you promised to your servant David.

¹⁸ “And yet, will God indeed dwell with the people on earth? If the heavens and even the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built! ¹⁹ Look with kindness on your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord, my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant makes before you.

²⁰ “May your eyes be forever on this house day and night, the place where you decreed that you would establish your name. Listen to the prayer that your servant offers in your presence. ²¹ Also hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel which they direct toward this place. Listen from your heavenly dwelling, and when you hear, grant us forgiveness.

²² “When anyone sins against his neighbor and is required to take an oath, and he comes forth and swears before your altar in this temple, ²³ then listen from heaven and take the necessary action. Judge your servants, requiting the guilty person and holding him responsible for his conduct, but absolving the innocent person and rewarding him in accordance with his righteousness.

²⁴ “Should your people Israel sin against you and as a result be defeated by an enemy, but then return to you and confess your name and pray and plead to you in this temple, ²⁵ listen to them and forgive the sin of your people Israel and then bring them back to the land that you gave to them and their ancestors.

²⁶ “When the heavens are shut and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, but then they pray toward this place, praise your name, and desist from sin because you have afflicted them, ²⁷ listen to their pleas in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. Show them the path of righteousness along which they should walk and send down rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

²⁸ “Should there be famine afflicting the land, or plague, or blight, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars, or should enemies besiege your people in any of their cities, or should plague or sickness befall them, ²⁹ then mercifully listen to the prayer or supplication of everyone among your people Israel, each one knowing his own suffering and his own sorrows and stretching out his hands toward this temple. ³⁰ Listen from heaven, your dwelling place, as you grant forgiveness and deal with each man according to his deeds, since you alone know what is in each person’s heart.^{[q] 31} As a result, the people will fear you and walk in your ways throughout all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our ancestors.

³² “Likewise, when foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel come from a distant land because of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, and they approach and pray in your temple, ³³ listen from heaven, your dwelling place, and grant whatever they ask of you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may acknowledge your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built bears your name.

³⁴ “If your people go forth to engage in war against their enemies, wherever you choose to send them, and they pray to you, facing toward this city that you have chosen and toward this house that I have built to honor your name, ³⁵ then listen from heaven to their prayer and their supplication, and defend their cause.

³⁶ “When your people sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and in your anger against them you deliver them into the power of the enemy who will carry them away captive to a land far or near, ³⁷ and then, later on, if they come to their senses in the land to which they have been taken as captives and they repent, entreating you in the land of their captivity as they say: ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’ ³⁸ and they repent with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity to which they have been taken, and they pray, turning toward the land which you gave to their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen and the temple I have built to honor your name, ³⁹ then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer and their pleas, uphold their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

⁴⁰ “Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

Chapter 7

¹ When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, after which the glory of the Lord filled the temple. ² The priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled it.

³ When all the Israelites beheld the fire descending and the glory of the Lord upon the temple, they bowed down upon the pavement with their faces to the ground. Then they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying:

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. ⁵ King Solomon offered as a sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

The Dedication. ⁶ The priests stood at their appointed posts, as did the Levites, with the musical instruments for the Lord that King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord—for his love endures forever—whenever David used them to offer praise to their accompaniment. Opposite them the priests sounded their trumpets while all the Israelites stood.^[r]

⁷ Then Solomon consecrated the middle part of the court that lay in front of the house of the Lord. There he presented the burnt offerings and the fatty portions of the shared offerings because the bronze altar which he had made could not hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fatty parts.

⁸ After that Solomon, and all Israel with him, a massive congregation, from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, celebrated the festival for seven days. ⁹ On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, inasmuch as they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days.

¹⁰ On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people back to their homes rejoicing and happy in heart because of all the wonderful things that the Lord had granted to David, to Solomon, and to his people Israel. ¹¹ Solomon had completed the house of the Lord and the royal palace. Everything that he had been determined to accomplish in the house of the Lord and in his own house had been successfully completed.

¹² God’s Warning to Solomon. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³ When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send a pestilence to overcome my people, ¹⁴ and if then my people who bear my name humble themselves and pray to me and seek my presence as they turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them from heaven and forgive their sins and restore their land.

¹⁵ “Then my eyes will be open and my ears will be attentive to the prayers that are offered in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart shall constantly be there.

¹⁷ “As for you, if you on your part live in my presence as your father David lived, doing everything that I have commanded you and observing my laws and my decrees, ¹⁸ then I will establish your royal throne, as I promised by a covenant with your father David when I said: ‘You shall never lack a male successor of yours to rule over Israel.’

¹⁹ “However, if you turn away and forsake my laws and my commandments which I have laid down for you, and then proceed to serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot the people from the land which I have given them. I will cast from my sight this temple which I have consecrated for my name, cast it out of my sight, and make it a byword and an object of ridicule for all people.

²¹ “And in regard to this temple that was once so exalted, everyone who passes by it will be appalled at the sight and ask: ‘Why has the Lord allowed this to happen^[s] to this land and to this house?’ ²² Then others will reply: ‘Because the people abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. Instead, they adopted other gods, whom they worshiped and served. That is why the Lord has brought all these disasters upon them.’ ”

Chapter 8

Solomon’s Buildings.^{[t] 1} At the end of the twenty years that Solomon had taken to build the house of the Lord and his own palace, ² he rebuilt the cities that Huram had given to him, and he settled the Israelites in them.

³ Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it.^{[u] 4} After that he fortified Tadmor^[v] in the wilderness and all the storage towns that he had built in Hamath. ⁵ He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, ⁶ and Baalath, all the supply cities belonging to Solomon, and all the towns for his chariots and for his cavalry and whatever else Solomon decided to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and throughout his entire dominion.

⁷ All the people who still remained of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites who did not belong to Israel— ⁸ that is, from their descendants still surviving in the land, whom the people of Israel had not destroyed—Solomon subjected to forced labor, as is still the case today.^[w]

⁹ However, Solomon did not use the people of Israel as slaves for all the work he wanted done. Rather, they were assigned as soldiers and his officers, as well as the commanders of his soldiers and his cavalry.^{[x] 10} These served as King Solomon’s officials, two hundred and fifty in number, who exercised authority over the people.

¹¹ Solomon’s Piety. Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the place that he had built for her, for he said: “No wife of mine shall live in the house of King David of Israel, for the places that the Ark of the Lord has entered are sacred.”

¹² Then Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord that he had built in front of the portico, ¹³ in accordance with what was required for each day, offerings in accordance with the law of Moses for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the annual dedicated feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.

¹⁴ Following the ordinances of his father David, Solomon designated the various divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry alongside the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers designated for specific gates, for such was the command of David, the man of God. ¹⁵ The instructions that David had specified in regard to the priests and Levites and also concerning the treasuries were never disregarded.

¹⁶ Thus all of Solomon’s work was accomplished, from the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷ Solomon’s Glory. Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Elath on the seacoast of Edom, ¹⁸ and Huram sent ships under the command of his own officers and manned by experienced seamen familiar with the sea. They went to Ophir, together with the servants of Solomon, and brought back from there four hundred and fifty talents that they presented to King Solomon.

Chapter 9

The Queen of Sheba. ¹ When the Queen of Sheba was informed about Solomon’s reputation, she came to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions. Arriving with a very large retinue, and with camels bearing spices, an immense quantity of gold, and precious stones, she came to Solomon and discussed everything she had on her mind. ² Solomon answered all of her questions. There was nothing she asked that he was unable to explain to her.

³ When the Queen of Sheba witnessed the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, ⁴ the food served at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendants and the elegance of their clothing, the cupbearers in their robes, and the burnt offerings that he presented in the house of the Lord, it literally took her breath away.

⁵ Then she said to the king: “The reports I heard in my own country about your accomplishments and your wisdom proved to be true. ⁶ However, I did not believe those reports to be accurate until I came and saw all this with my own eyes. Moreover, I have come to realize that I was not told even half of the greatness of your wisdom. You far surpass everything I had heard about you.

⁷ “How fortunate your people are! Happy are these servants of yours who are continually attending you and listening to your wisdom! ⁸ Blessed is the Lord, your God, who has taken such great delight in you and placed you on his throne as king for the Lord, your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to have Israel endure forever, he has appointed you to be their king so that you may ensure that justice and righteousness will be maintained.”

⁹ Then she presented King Solomon with one hundred and twenty talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. There had never been spices previously to equal those that the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰ Besides all this, the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon who had brought gold from Ophir also brought large amounts of algum wood and precious stones. ¹¹ From the algum wood the king made stairs for the house of the Lord and for the king’s palace, as well as lyres and harps for the singers. Nothing to match them had ever been seen before in the land of Judah.

¹² King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba everything she desired and requested, far surpassing what she had brought to the king. Then she departed with her servants and journeyed back to her own land.

¹³ The weight of the gold that Solomon received each year amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold ¹⁴ in addition to the tolls levied on merchants and what was collected from foreign trade. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the provinces also brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵ Moreover, King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, with six hundred shekels of beaten gold going into each shield, ¹⁶ and three hundred bucklers of beaten gold, with three hundred shekels of gold going into each buckler. The king stored all these in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷ King Solomon also made a large ivory throne which he overlaid with pure gold. ¹⁸ The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was fastened to it. There were armrests on each side of the seat, with two lions standing beside the arms, ¹⁹ while twelve lions stood on either side of the six steps. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.

²⁰ Furthermore, all of Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were made of pure gold. Silver was not regarded as anything of value in the days of King Solomon. ²¹ The king had a fleet of ships that sailed to Tarshish with the servants of Huram. Once every three years a fleet of ships from Tarshish used to return with a cargo of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

²² Thus King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom, ²³ and all the kings of the earth sought to consult Solomon in order to hear from him the wisdom that God had implanted in his heart. ²⁴ Moreover, every single one of those kings brought a gift with him: objects of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules in an annual tribute.

²⁵ Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁶ He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and the border of Egypt.

²⁷ King Solomon made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamores of the foothills. ²⁸ Horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all the other countries.

²⁹ The Death of Solomon. The rest of the acts of Solomon’s reign, from first to last, are recorded in the history of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and, in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.^[y]

³⁰ Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. ³¹ Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of his father David. He was succeeded by his son Rehoboam.