The Lord’s Response to Solomon

9 So Solomon finished building the Temple of the Lord, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do. ² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had done before at Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him,

Solomon’s Agreement with Hiram

¹⁰ It took Solomon twenty years to build the Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time, ¹¹ he 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.) ¹² But 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. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, Hiram paid^[a] Solomon 9,000 pounds^[b] of gold.

Solomon’s Many Achievements

¹⁵ This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s Temple, the royal palace, the supporting terraces,^[c] 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. ¹⁷ So Solomon rebuilt the city of Gezer.) He also built up the towns of Lower Beth-horon, ¹⁸ Baalath, and Tamar^[d] in the wilderness within his land. ¹⁹ He built towns as supply centers and constructed towns where his chariots and horses^[e] could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.

²⁰ There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ²¹ These were descendants of the nations whom the people of Israel had not completely destroyed.^[f] So Solomon conscripted them as slaves, and they serve as forced laborers to this day. ²² But 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. ²³ Solomon appointed 550 of them to supervise the people working on his various projects.

²⁴ Solomon 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.

²⁵ Three 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.

²⁶ King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, a port near Elath^[g] in the land of Edom, along the shore of the Red Sea.^{[h] 27} Hiram sent experienced crews of sailors to sail the ships with Solomon’s men. ²⁸ They sailed to Ophir and brought back to Solomon some sixteen tons^[i] of gold.

Solomon’s Many Achievements

8 It took Solomon twenty years to build the Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time, ² Solomon turned his attention to rebuilding the towns that King Hiram^[a] had given him, and he settled Israelites in them.

³ Solomon also fought against the town of Hamath-zobah and conquered it. ⁴ He rebuilt Tadmor in the wilderness and built towns in the region of Hamath as supply centers. ⁵ He fortified the towns of Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, rebuilding their walls and installing barred gates. ⁶ He also rebuilt Baalath and other supply centers and constructed towns where his chariots and horses^[b] could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.

⁷ There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ⁸ These were descendants of the nations whom the people of Israel had not destroyed. So Solomon conscripted them for his labor force, and they serve as forced laborers to this day. ⁹ But Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for his labor force. Instead, he assigned them to serve as fighting men, officers in his army, commanders of his chariots, and charioteers. ¹⁰ King Solomon appointed 250 of them to supervise the people.

¹¹ Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, from the City of David to the new palace he had built for her. He said, “My wife must not live in King David’s palace, for the Ark of the Lord has been there, and it is holy ground.”

¹² Then Solomon presented burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar he had built for him in front of the entry room of the Temple. ¹³ He offered the sacrifices for the Sabbaths, the new moon festivals, and the three annual festivals—the Passover celebration, the Festival of Harvest,^[c] and the Festival of Shelters—as Moses had commanded.

¹⁴ In assigning the priests to their duties, Solomon followed the regulations of his father, David. He also assigned the Levites to lead the people in praise and to assist the priests in their daily duties. And he assigned the gatekeepers to their gates by their divisions, following the commands of David, the man of God. ¹⁵ Solomon did not deviate in any way from David’s commands concerning the priests and Levites and the treasuries.

¹⁶ So Solomon made sure that all the work related to building the Temple of the Lord was carried out, from the day its foundation was laid to the day of its completion.

¹⁷ Later Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Elath,^[d] ports along the shore of the Red Sea^[e] in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ Hiram sent him ships commanded by his own officers and manned by experienced crews of sailors. These ships sailed to Ophir with Solomon’s men and brought back to Solomon almost seventeen tons^[f] of gold.