1 Kings 9
9
1 Now it happened that, when Solomon had perfected the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all that he had desired and had willed to do,
2 the Lord appeared to him a second time, just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
3 And the Lord said to him: "I have heard your prayer and your petition, which you prayed before me. I have sanctified this house, which you have built, so that I may place my name there forever, and so that my eyes and my heart will be there for all days.
4 Also, if you will walk before me, just as your father walked, in simplicity of heart and in equity, and you do all that I have instructed to you, and you keep my laws and my judgments,
5 then I will set the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised your father David, saying: 'A man from your stock shall not be taken away from the throne of Israel.'
6 But if you and your sons, wandering, will have turned away, not following me, and not keeping my commandments and my ceremonies, which I have proposed to you, but instead you go away, and you serve strange gods and adore them,
7 then I will take away Israel from the face of the land, which I have given to them. And the temple, which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast out from my sight. And Israel will be a proverb and a parable among all the peoples.
8 And this house will become an example: anyone who passes by it will be stupefied, and he will hiss and say, 'Why has the Lord acted in this way to this land and to this house?'
9 And they will respond: 'Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who led their fathers away from the land of Egypt, and they followed strange gods, and they adored them and served them. For this reason, the Lord led all this evil over them.' "
10 Then, when twenty years were fulfilled, 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, having supplied Solomon with cedar wood, and spruce wood, and gold, in accord with all that he needed, then Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee.
12 And Hiram went out of Tyre, so that he might view the towns that Solomon had given to him. And they did not please him.
13 And he said, "Are these the cities that you have given to me, brother?" And he called them the land of Cabul, even to this day.
14 And Hiram sent to king Solomon one hundred twenty talents of gold.
15 This is the sum of the expenses that king Solomon offered for the building of the house of the Lord, and his own house, and for Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.
16 Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, ascended and seized Gezer, and he burned it with fire. And he put to death the Canaanite who was living in the city, and he gave it as a dowry for his daughter, the wife of Solomon.
17 Therefore, Solomon built up Gezer, and lower Beth-horon,
18 and Baalath, and Palmira in the land of the wilderness.
19 And all the towns which belonged to him, and which were without walls, he walled, along with the cities of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen, and whatever was pleasing to him that he might build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in the entire land of his dominion.
20 All the people who had remained of the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel,
21 their sons, who had remained in the land, namely, those whom the sons of Israel had not been able to destroy, Solomon made tributary, even to this day.
22 But from the sons of Israel, Solomon did not appoint anyone at all to serve, except the men of war, and his ministers, and leaders, and commanders, and the overseers of the chariots and the horses.
23 Now there were five hundred fifty leaders in the first place over all the works of Solomon, and they had people subject to them, and these were given orders for the appointed works.
24 And the daughter of Pharaoh went up from the city of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her. Then he built up Millo.
25 Also, three times each year, Solomon offered holocausts and victims of peace offerings, upon the altar that he had built to the Lord, and he burned incense before the Lord. And the temple was perfected.
26 And king Solomon made a navy at Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shores of the Red Sea, in the land of Idumea.
27 And Hiram sent his servants to that navy, the sailors and those knowledgeable about the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
28 And when they had gone to Ophir, taking from there four hundred twenty talents of gold, they brought it to king Solomon.
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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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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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