Solomon Builds His Palace

7 It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace.^{(A) 2} He built the Palace^(B) of the Forest of Lebanon^(C) a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high,^[a] with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams. ³ It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns—forty-five beams, fifteen to a row. ⁴ Its windows were placed high in sets of three, facing each other. ⁵ All the doorways had rectangular frames; they were in the front part in sets of three, facing each other.^[b]

⁶ He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide.^[c] In front of it was a portico, and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof.

⁷ He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge,^(D) and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling.^{[d](E) 8} And the palace in which he was to live, set farther back, was similar in design. Solomon also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.^(F)

⁹ All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and smoothed on their inner and outer faces. ¹⁰ The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits^[e] and some eight.^{[f] 11} Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams. ¹² The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses^(G) of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the Lord with its portico.

The Lord Appears to Solomon^(A)

¹¹ When Solomon had finished^(B) the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, ¹² the Lord appeared^(C) to him at night and said:

Solomon’s Other Activities^(A)

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 gold^(B) 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,^[a](C) a name they have to this day. ¹⁴ Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents^[b] of gold.^(D)

¹⁵ Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted^(E) to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,^[c](F) the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor,^(G) Megiddo and Gezer.^(H)

¹⁷ And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,^{(A) 18} Baalath,^(B) and Tadmor^[a] in the desert, within his land, ¹⁹ as well as all his store cities^(C) and the towns for his chariots^(D) and for his horses^[b]—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,^(E) Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites^(F) (these peoples were not Israelites). ²¹ Solomon conscripted the descendants^(G) of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminate^[c](H)—to serve as slave labor,^(I) as it is to this day. ²² But Solomon did not make slaves^(J) 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 officials^(K) in charge of Solomon’s projects—550 officials supervising those who did the work.

¹¹ Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter^(A) up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”

¹² On the altar^(B) of the Lord that he had built in front of the portico, Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord, ¹³ according to the daily requirement^(C) for offerings commanded by Moses for the Sabbaths,^(D) the New Moons^(E) and the three^(F) annual festivals—the Festival of Unleavened Bread,^(G) the Festival of Weeks^(H) and the Festival of Tabernacles.^{(I) 14} In keeping with the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions^(J) of the priests for their duties, and the Levites^(K) to lead the praise and to assist the priests according to each day’s requirement. He also appointed the gatekeepers^(L) by divisions for the various gates, because this was what David the man of God^(M) had ordered.^{(N) 15} They did not deviate from the king’s commands to the priests or to the Levites in any matter, including that of the treasuries.

¹⁶ All Solomon’s work was carried out, from the day the foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid until its completion. So the temple of the Lord was finished.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath on the coast of Edom. ¹⁸ And Hiram sent him ships commanded by his own men, sailors who knew the sea. These, with Solomon’s men, sailed to Ophir and brought back four hundred and fifty talents^[a] of gold,^(O) which they delivered to King Solomon.