1 Kings 9
9
The Lord’s Response to Solomon
1So Solomon finished building the Temple of the Lord, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do. 2Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had done before at Gibeon. 3The Lord said to him,
“I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart.
4“As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, 5then I will establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of Israel.’
6“But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, 7then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. 8And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will gasp in horror. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’
9“And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why the Lord has brought all these disasters on them.’”
Solomon’s Agreement with Hiram
10It took Solomon twenty years to build the Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time, 11he gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre. (Hiram had previously provided all the cedar and cypress timber and gold that Solomon had requested.) 12But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, he was not at all pleased with them. 13“What kind of towns are these, my brother?” he asked. So Hiram called that area Cabul (which means “worthless”), as it is still known today. 14Nevertheless, Hiram paid#9:14a Or For Hiram had paid. Solomon 9,000 pounds#9:14b Hebrew 120 talents [4,000 kilograms]. of gold.
Solomon’s Many Achievements
15This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s Temple, the royal palace, the supporting terraces,#9:15 Hebrew the millo; also in 9:24. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16(Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, killing the Canaanite population and burning it down. He gave the city to his daughter as a wedding gift when she married Solomon. 17So Solomon rebuilt the city of Gezer.) He also built up the towns of Lower Beth-horon, 18Baalath, and Tamar#9:18 An alternate reading in the Masoretic Text reads Tadmor. in the wilderness within his land. 19He built towns as supply centers and constructed towns where his chariots and horses#9:19 Or and charioteers. could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.
20There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 21These were descendants of the nations whom the people of Israel had not completely destroyed.#9:21 The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering. So Solomon conscripted them as slaves, and they serve as forced laborers to this day. 22But Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for forced labor. Instead, he assigned them to serve as fighting men, government officials, officers and captains in his army, commanders of his chariots, and charioteers. 23Solomon appointed 550 of them to supervise the people working on his various projects.
24Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, from the City of David to the new palace he had built for her. Then he constructed the supporting terraces.
25Three times each year Solomon presented burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord. He also burned incense to the Lord. And so he finished the work of building the Temple.
26King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, a port near Elath#9:26a As in Greek version (see also 2 Kgs 14:22; 16:6); Hebrew reads Eloth, a variant spelling of Elath. in the land of Edom, along the shore of the Red Sea.#9:26b Hebrew sea of reeds. 27Hiram sent experienced crews of sailors to sail the ships with Solomon’s men. 28They sailed to Ophir and brought back to Solomon some sixteen tons#9:28 Hebrew 420 talents [14 metric tons]. of gold.
Currently Selected:
1 Kings 9: NLT
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
For more information about the NLT:
3 Kings 9
9
1And it came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all that he desired, and was pleased to do,
2That the Lord appeared to him the second time, as he had appeared to him in Gabaon.
3And the Lord said to him: I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, which thou hast made before me. I have sanctified this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever: and my eyes and my heart shall be there always.
4And if thou wilt walk before me, as thy father walked, in simplicity of heart, and in uprightness: and wilt do all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my ordinances and my judgments,
5I will establish the throne of thy kingdom over Israel for ever, as I promised David thy father, saying: There shall not fail a man of thy race upon the throne of Israel.
6But if you and your children revolting shall turn away from following me, and will not keep my commandments, and my ceremonies, which I have set before you, but will go and worship strange gods, and adore them:
7I will take away Israel from the face of the land which I have given them. And the temple which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast out of my sight. And Israel shall be a proverb, and a byword among all people.
8And this house shall be made an example of. Every one that shall pass by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and say: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house?
9And they shall answer: Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and followed strange gods, and adored them, and worshipped them. Therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.
10And when twenty years were ended after Solomon had built the two houses, that is, the house of the Lord, and the house of the king,
11(Hiram the king of Tyre furnishing Solomon with cedar-trees and fir-trees, and gold, according to all he had need of): then Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
12And Hiram came out of Tyre, to see the towns which Solomon had given him, and they pleased him not.
13And he said: Are these the cities which thou hast given me, brother? And he called them the land of Chabul, unto this day.
14And Hiram sent to king Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold.
15This is the sum of the expenses, which king Solomon offered to build the house of the Lord, and his own house, and Mello, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Heser, and Mageddo, and Gazer.
16Pharao the king of Egypt came up and took Gazer, and burnt it with fire: and slew the Chanaanite that dwelt in the city: and gave it for a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife.
17So Solomon built Gazer, and Beth-horon the nether,
18And Baalath, and Palmira in the land of the wilderness.
19And all the towns that belonged to himself, and were not walled, he fortified: the cities also of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen, and whatsoever he had a mind to build in Jerusalem, and in Libanus, and in all the land of his dominion.
20All the people that were left of the Amorrhites, and Hethites, and Pherezites, and Hevites, and Jebusites, that are not of the children of Israel:
21Their children, that were left in the land, to wit, such as the children of Israel had not been able to destroy, Solomon made tributary unto this day.
22But of the children of Israel Solomon made not any to be bondmen, but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and captains, and overseers of the chariots and horses.
23And there were five hundred and fifty chief officers set over all the works of Solomon: and they had people under them, and had charge over the appointed works.
24And the daughter of Pharao came up out of the city of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her. Then did he build Mello.
25Solomon also offered three times every year holocausts, and victims of peace-offerings upon the altar which he had built to the Lord: and he burnt incense before the Lord. And the temple was finished.
26And king Solomon made a fleet in Asiongaber, which is by Ailath, on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom.
27And Hiram sent his servants in the fleet, sailors that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
28And they came to Ophir: and they brought from thence to king Solomon four hundred and twenty talents of gold.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.