The Lord Appears to Solomon Again

(2 Chronicles 7.11-22)

9 The Lord's temple and Solomon's palace were now finished, and Solomon had built everything he wanted. ^2 (A) Some time later the Lord appeared to him again in a dream, just as he had done at Gibeon. ^3 (B) The Lord said:

I heard your prayer and what you asked me to do. This temple you have built is where I will be worshiped forever. It belongs to me, and I will never stop watching over it.

⁴ You must obey me, as your father David did, and be honest and fair. Obey my laws and teachings, ^5 (C) and I will keep my promise to David that someone from your family will always be king of Israel.

⁶ But if you or any of your descendants disobey my commands or start worshiping foreign gods, ⁷ I will no longer let my people Israel live in this land I gave them. I will desert this temple where I said I would be worshiped. Then people everywhere will think this nation is only a joke and will make fun of it. ^8 (D) This temple will become a pile of rocks!^[a] Everyone who walks by will be shocked, and they will ask, “Why did the Lord do such a terrible thing to his people and to this temple?” ⁹ Then they will answer, “We know why the Lord did this. The people of Israel rejected the Lord their God, who rescued their ancestors from Egypt, and they started worshiping other gods.”

Other Things Solomon Did

(2 Chronicles 8.1-18)

¹⁰ It took 20 years for the Lord's temple and Solomon's palace to be built. ¹¹ Later, Solomon gave King Hiram of Tyre 20 towns in the region of Galilee to repay him for the cedar, pine, and gold he had given Solomon.

¹² When Hiram went to see the towns, he did not like them. ¹³ He said, “Solomon, my friend, are these the kind of towns you want to give me?” So Hiram called the region Cabul because he thought it was worthless.^{[b] 14} He sent Solomon only five tons of gold in return.

¹⁵ After Solomon's workers had finished the temple and the palace, he ordered them to fill in the land on the east side of Jerusalem,^[c] to build a wall around the city, and to rebuild the towns of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶ Earlier, the king of Egypt had captured the town of Gezer; he burned it to the ground and killed the Canaanite people living there. Then he gave it to his daughter as a wedding present when she married Solomon. ¹⁷ So Solomon had the town rebuilt.

Solomon ordered his workers to rebuild Lower Beth-Horon, ¹⁸ Baalath, and Tamar in the desert of Judah. ¹⁹ They also built towns where he could keep his supplies and his chariots and horses. Solomon ordered them to build whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and anywhere in his kingdom.

^20-22 Solomon did not force the Israelites to do his work. They were his soldiers, officials, leaders, commanders, chariot captains, and chariot drivers. But he did make slaves of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were living in Israel. These were the descendants of those foreigners the Israelites could not destroy, and they remained Israel's slaves.

²³ Solomon appointed 550 officers to be in charge of his workers and to watch over his building projects.

²⁴ Solomon's wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, moved from the older part of Jerusalem^[d] to her new palace. Then Solomon had the land on the east side of Jerusalem filled in.^[e]

^25 (E) Three times a year, Solomon burned incense and offered sacrifices to the Lord on the altar he had built.

Solomon had now finished building the Lord's temple.

²⁶ He also had a lot of ships at Ezion-Geber, a town in Edom near Eloth on the Red Sea.^{[f] 27-28} King Hiram let some of his experienced sailors go to the country of Ophir^[g] with Solomon's own sailors, and they brought back about 14 tons of gold for Solomon.

Other Things Solomon Did

(1 Kings 9.10-28)

8 It took 20 years for the Lord's temple and Solomon's palace to be built. ² After that, Solomon had his workers rebuild the towns that Hiram had given him. Then Solomon sent Israelites to live in those towns.

³ Solomon attacked and captured the town of Hamath-Zobah. ⁴ He ordered his workers to build the town of Tadmor in the desert and some towns in Hamath where he could keep his supplies. ⁵ He strengthened Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon by adding walls and gates that could be locked. ⁶ He did the same thing to the town of Baalath and to the cities where he kept supplies, chariots, and horses. Solomon ordered his workers to build whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and anywhere else in his kingdom.

^7-9 Solomon did not force the Israelites to do his work. Instead, they were his soldiers, officers, army commanders, and cavalry troops. But he did make slaves of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were living in Israel. These were the descendants of those foreigners the Israelites did not destroy, and they remained Israel's slaves.

¹⁰ Solomon appointed 250 officers to be in charge of his workers.

¹¹ Solomon's wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, moved from the part of Jerusalem called David's City to her new palace that Solomon had built. The sacred chest had been kept in David's City, which made his palace sacred, and so Solomon's wife could no longer live there.

¹² Solomon offered sacrifices to the Lord on the altar he had built in front of the temple porch. ^13 (A) He followed the requirements that Moses had given for sacrifices offered on the Sabbath, on the first day of each month, the Festival of Thin Bread, the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Shelters.

¹⁴ Solomon then assigned the priests and the Levites their duties at the temple, and he followed the instructions that his father, the man of God, had given him. Some of the Levites were to lead music and help the priests in their duties, and others were to guard the temple gates ¹⁵ and the storage rooms. The priests and Levites followed these instructions exactly.

¹⁶ Everything Solomon had planned to do was now finished—from the laying of the temple's foundation to its completion.

¹⁷ Solomon went to Ezion-Geber and Eloth, two Edomite towns on the Red Sea.^{[a] 18} Hiram sent him ships and some of his experienced sailors. They went with Solomon's own sailors to the country of Ophir^[b] and brought back more than 15 tons of gold for Solomon.