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.
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1 Kings 9: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Melachim Alef 9
9
1And it came to pass, when Sh'lomo had completed the building of the Beis Hashem, and the Bais HaMelech, and all Sh'lomoʼs desire which he was pleased to do,
2That Hashem appeared to Sh'lomo the second time, as He had appeared unto him at Giv'on.
3And Hashem said unto him, I have heard thy tefillah and thy techinnah, that thou hast made before Me; I have set apart as kodesh this Beis,#9:3 HaMikdash which thou hast built, to put Shemi there ad olam; and Mine eyes and Mine lev shall be there kol hayamim.
4And if thou wilt walk before Me, just as Dovid Avicha walked, in tohm (integrity, guilelessness) of lev, and in yashar, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and will be shomer over My chukkot and My mishpatim;
5Then I will establish the kisse (throne) of thy kingdom over Yisroel l'olam, as I promised to Dovid Avicha, saying, There shall not yikaret (be cut off, fail) thee an ish upon the Kisse Yisroel.
6But if ye shall at all turn from following Me, ye or your banim, and will not be shomer over My mitzvot and My chukkot which I have set before you, but go and serve elohim acherim, and hishtachaveh (worship) them;
7Then will I cut off Yisroel out of the adamah which I have given them; and this Beis,#9:7 HaMikdash which I have set apart as kodesh for Shemi, will I cast out of My sight; and Yisroel shall be a mashal (proverb) and a sheninah (taunt, byword) among kol ha'ammim;
8And at this Beis, which is elyon, every one that passeth by it shall be appalled, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath Hashem done thus unto HaAretz Hazot, and to this Beis?
9And they shall answer, Because they forsook Hashem Eloheichem who brought forth their avot out of Eretz Mitzrayim, and have taken hold upon elohim acherim, and have worshiped them, and served them; therefore hath Hashem brought upon them all this ra'ah.
10And it came to pass at the end of esrim shanim, when Sh'lomo had built the two batim, the Beis Hashem, and the Bais HaMelech,
11 (Now Chiram Melech Tzor had furnished Sh'lomo with cedar trees and cypress trees, and with zahav, according to all his desire), that then HaMelech Sh'lomo gave Chiram esrim ir (twenty towns) in Eretz HaGalil.
12And Chiram came out from Tzor (Tyre) to see the towns which Sh'lomo had given him; and they pleased him not.
13And he said, What towns are these which thou hast given me, achi (my brother)? And he called them Eretz Kavul unto this day.
14And Chiram sent to HaMelech 120 talents of zahav.
15And this is the account of the mas (forced labor) which HaMelech Sh'lomo conscripted; to build the Beis Hashem, and his own Bais, and Millo, and the Chomat Yerushalayim, and Chatzor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.
16For Pharaoh Melech Mitzrayim had gone up, and captured Gezer, and burned it with eish, and slain the Kena'ani that dwelt in the ir, and given it for shilluchim (going-away presents) unto his bat eshet Sh'lomo.
17And Sh'lomo rebuilt Gezer, and Lower Beit-Choron,
18And Ba'alat, and Tadmor in the midbar, in the land,
19And all the storage cities that Sh'lomo had, and cities for his merkavot, and cities for his parashim (calvary), and that which Sh'lomo desired to build in Yerushalayim, and in Levanon, and in all the eretz of his memshalet.
20And kol haAm that were left of HaEmori (the Amorites), HaChitti (Hittites), HaPerizzi (Perizzites), HaChivi (Hivites), and Yevusi (Jebusites), which were not of the Bnei Yisroel,
21Their banim that were left after them in HaAretz, whom the Bnei Yisroel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Sh'lomo conscript mas of oved (bondservice) unto this day.
22But of the Bnei Yisroel did Sh'lomo make no eved; but they were anshei hamilchamah, and his avadim, and his sarim, and his shalishim (captains), and commanders of his merkavot, and his parashim.
23These were the chief of the officials that were over the melachah (work) of Sh'lomo five hundred and fifty, harodim (the ones supervising) the people that wrought in the melachah.
24But Bat Pharaoh came up out of the Ir Dovid unto her Bais (Palace) which Sh'lomo had built for her; then did he build the Millo.
25And three times in shanah did Sh'lomo offer olot and shelamim upon the Mizbe'ach which he built unto Hashem and he burned ketoret upon the Mizbe'ach that was before Hashem. So he completed the Beis.
26And HaMelech Sh'lomo built a fleet of oniyyot in Etzyon-Gever, which is near Eilot, on the shore of the Yam Suf, in Eretz Edom.
27And Chiram sent to the fleet of oniyyot his avadim, anshei oniyyot (shipmen, sailors) that had da'as hayam (knowledge of the sea), with the avadim of Sh'lomo.
28And they came to Ophir, and brought back from there zahav, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to HaMelech Sh'lomo.
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