1Solomon finished building the LORD’s temple and the royal palace. He had accomplished everything he had planned to do.2The LORD appeared to him a second time. He had already appeared to him at Gibeon.3The LORD said to him, ‘I have heard you pray to me. I have heard you ask me to help you. You have built this temple. I have set it apart for myself. My Name will be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.4‘But you must walk faithfully with me, just as your father David did. Your heart must be honest. It must be without blame. Do everything I command you to do. Obey my rules and laws.5Then I will set up your royal throne over Israel for ever. I promised your father David I would do that. I said to him, “You will always have a son from your family line on the throne of Israel.”6‘But suppose all of you turn away from me. Or your children turn away from me. You refuse to obey the commands and rules I have given you. And you go off to serve other gods and worship them.7Then I will remove Israel from the land. It is the land I gave them. I will turn my back on this temple. I will do it even though I have set it apart for my Name to be there. Then Israel will be hated by all the nations. They will laugh and joke about Israel.8This temple will become a pile of stones. All those who pass by it will be shocked. They will make fun of it. And they will say, “Why has the LORD done a thing like this to this land and temple?”9People will answer, “Because they have deserted the LORD their God. He brought out of Egypt their people of long ago. But they have been holding on to other gods. They’ve been worshipping them. They’ve been serving them. That’s why the LORD has brought all this horrible trouble on them.” ’
Other things Solomon did
10Solomon built the LORD’s temple and the royal palace. It took him 20 years to construct those two buildings.11King Solomon gave 20 towns in Galilee to Hiram, the king of Tyre. That’s because Hiram had provided him with all the cedar and juniper logs he wanted. He had also provided Solomon with all the gold he wanted.12Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him. But he wasn’t pleased with them.13‘My friend’, he asked, ‘what have you given me? What kind of towns are these?’ So he called them the Land of Kabul. And that’s what they are still called to this day.14Hiram had sent 4.5 tonnes of gold to Solomon.15King Solomon forced people to work hard for him. Here is a record of what they did. They built the LORD’s temple and Solomon’s palace. They filled in the low places. They rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem. They built up Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.16Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked Gezer and captured it. He had set it on fire. He had killed the Canaanites who lived there. Then he had given Gezer as a wedding gift to his daughter. She was Solomon’s wife.17Solomon rebuilt Gezer. He built up Lower Beth Horon18and Baalath. He built up Tadmor in the desert. All those towns were in his land.19He built up all the cities where he could store things. He also built up the towns for his chariots and horses. He built anything he wanted to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon and all the territory he ruled over.20There were still many people left in the land who weren’t Israelites. They included Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.21They were children of the people who had lived in the land before the Israelites came. Those people had been set apart to the LORD in a special way to be destroyed. But the Israelites hadn’t been able to kill all of them. Solomon forced them to work very hard as his slaves. And they still work for Israel as slaves to this day.22But Solomon didn’t force any of the Israelites to work as his slaves. Instead, some were his fighting men. Others were his government officials, his officers and his captains. Others were commanders of his chariots and chariot drivers.23Still others were the chief officials in charge of Solomon’s projects. There were 550 officials in charge of those who did the work.24Pharaoh’s daughter moved from the City of David up to the palace Solomon had built for her. After that, he filled in the low places near the palace.25Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and friendship offerings. He sacrificed them on the altar he had built to honour the LORD. Along with the offerings, he burned incense to the LORD. So he carried out his duties for the temple.26King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber. It’s near Elath in Edom. It’s on the shore of the Red Sea.27Hiram sent his men to serve on the ships together with Solomon’s men. Hiram’s sailors knew the sea.28All of them sailed to Ophir. They brought back 15 tonnes of gold. They gave it to King Solomon.
1 Kings 9
English Standard Version
The Lord Appears to Solomon
1As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, (1Ki 7:1; 1Ki 9:19; 2Ch 7:11; 2Ch 8:1; 2Ch 8:6)2the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. (1Ki 3:5; 1Ki 11:9)3And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. (De 11:12; 1Ki 8:16; 1Ki 8:29)4And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, (Ge 17:1; 1Ki 11:4; 1Ki 11:6; 1Ki 11:38; 1Ki 14:8; 1Ki 15:5)5then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ (1Ki 2:4; 1Ki 6:12; 1Ch 22:10)6But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, (2Sa 7:14; Ps 89:30; Ps 89:32)7then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. (De 4:26; De 28:37; 2Ki 17:23; 2Ki 25:21; Ps 44:14; Jer 7:14)8And this house will become a heap of ruins.[1] Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ (De 29:24; Jer 22:8)9Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’” (1Ki 18:18)
Solomon’s Other Acts
10At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house, (1Ki 6:37; 1Ki 7:1; 2Ch 8:1)11and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.12But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him.13Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day. (Jos 19:27)14Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents[2] of gold.15And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer (Jos 11:1; Jos 17:11; 2Sa 5:9; 1Ki 5:13; 1Ki 9:24)16(Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife; (Jos 16:10; 1Ki 3:1; 1Ki 7:8)17so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon (Jos 10:10)18and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,[3]19and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. (1Ki 4:26; 1Ki 9:1; 1Ki 10:26; 2Ch 1:14; 2Ch 9:25)20All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel—21their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction[4]—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. (Jos 15:63; Jos 17:12; Jud 1:21; Jud 1:27; Jud 1:28; Jud 1:29; Jud 3:1; Ezr 2:55; Ne 7:57; Ne 11:3)22But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen. (Le 25:39)23These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work. (1Ki 5:16; 2Ch 8:10)24But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo. (2Sa 5:9; 1Ki 7:8; 1Ki 9:15; 1Ki 9:16; 1Ki 11:27; 2Ch 32:5)25Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the Lord, making offerings with it[5] before the Lord. So he finished the house.26King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. (Nu 33:35; De 2:8; 1Ki 22:48)27And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. (1Ki 10:11)28And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon. (1Ki 10:11; 1Ki 22:48; 1Ch 29:4; Job 22:24; Job 28:16; Ps 45:9; Isa 13:12)