The Lord Appears to Solomon

9:1–9pp—2Ch 7:11–22

9 When Solomon had finishedr building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, 2 the Lord appeareds to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The Lord said to him:

“I have heardt the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Nameu there forever. My eyesv and my heart will always be there.

4 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heartw and uprightness, as Davidx your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,y 5 I will establishz your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never faila to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if youa or your descendants turn awayb from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given youb and go off to serve other godsc and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the landd I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.e Israel will then become a bywordf and an object of ridiculeg among all peoples. 8 This temple will become a heap of rubble. Allc who pass by will be appalledh and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’i 9 People will answer,j ‘Because they have forsakenk the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disasterl on them.’ ”

Solomon’s Other Activities

9:10–28pp—2Ch 8:1–18

10 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the Lord and the royal palace—11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and goldm he wanted. 12 But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. 13 “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul,d n a name they have to this day. 14 Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talentse of gold.o

15 Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscriptedp to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,f q the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor,r Megiddo and Gezer.s 16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter,t Solomon’s wife. 17 And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,u 18 Baalath,v and Tadmorg in the desert, within his land, 19 as well as all his store citiesw and the towns for his chariotsx and for his horsesh—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

20 There were still people left from the Amorites, Hittites,y Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusitesz (these peoples were not Israelites). 21 Solomon conscripted the descendantsa of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminatei b—to serve as slave labor,c as it is to this day. 22 But Solomon did not make slavesd of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers. 23 They were also the chief officialse in charge of Solomon’s projects—550 officials supervising those who did the work.

24 After Pharaoh’s daughterf had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the terraces.g

25 Threeh times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.

26 King Solomon also built shipsi at Ezion Geber,j which is near Elathk in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.j 27 And Hiram sent his men—sailorsl who knew the sea—to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men. 28 They sailed to Ophirm and brought back 420 talentsk of gold,n which they delivered to King Solomon.