1 Kings 9:1-11:13

New American Standard Bible

God’s Promise and Warning

9 ^(A)Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and ^(B)the king’s house, and ^(C)all ^[a]that Solomon desired to do, ² that ^(D)the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ And the Lord said to him, “^(E)I have heard your prayer and your plea which you have offered before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built, ^(F)by putting My name there forever, and ^(G)My eyes and My heart will be there ^[b]always. ⁴ As for you, ^(H)if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and honesty, acting in accordance with everything that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My ordinances, ⁵ then ^(I)I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I ^[c]promised to your father David, saying, ‘^[d]You shall not be deprived of a man on the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “^(J)But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have placed before you, but you go and serve other gods and worship them, ^7 (K)then I will cut Israel off from the land which I have given them, and ^(L)the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will ^[e]expel from My sight. So ^(M)Israel will become a saying and an object of derision among all peoples. ⁸ And this house will become ^(N)a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and ^[f]hiss and say, ‘^(O)Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and this house?’ ⁹ And they will say, ‘^(P)Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they ^[g]adopted other gods and worshiped and served them, for that reason the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’”

Cities Given to Hiram

^10 (Q)Now it came about ^(R)at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house ¹¹ (Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and juniper timber and gold, ^[h]satisfying all his desire), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. ¹² So Hiram left Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they ^[i]did not please him. ¹³ And he said, “What are these cities which you have given me, my brother?” So ^[j]they have been called the land of ^[k](S)Cabul to this day. ^14 (T)And Hiram sent to the king ^[l]120 talents of gold.

¹⁵ Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon ^(U)conscripted to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the ^[m](V)Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, ^(W)Hazor, ^(X)Megiddo, and ^(Y)Gezer. ¹⁶ For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and overthrown Gezer and burned it with fire, and killed the ^(Z)Canaanites who lived in the city; and he had ^(AA)given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷ So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and the lower ^(AB)Beth-horon, ¹⁸ and ^(AC)Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, ¹⁹ and all the storage cities which Solomon had, that is, ^(AD)the cities for ^[n]his chariots and the cities for ^[o](AE)his horsemen, and ^[p](AF)everything that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land ^[q]under his rule. ²⁰ As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel, ^21 (AG)their descendants who were left after them in the land, ^(AH)whom the sons of Israel were unable to completely eliminate, ^(AI)from them Solomon conscripted ^(AJ)forced laborers, as they are to this day. ²² But Solomon ^(AK)did not make slaves of the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his servants, his commanders, his charioteers, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen.

²³ These were the ^[r](AL)chief officers who were in charge of Solomon’s work, 550, ^(AM)who ruled over the people doing the work.

²⁴ As soon as ^(AN)Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her, ^(AO)he then built the Millo.

²⁵ Now ^(AP)three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for the Lord, burning incense with them on the altar which was before the Lord. So he finished the house.

²⁶ King Solomon also built a ^(AQ)fleet of ships in ^(AR)Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the ^[s]Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ^27 (AS)And Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, sailors who knew the sea, along with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸ And they went to ^(AT)Ophir and received ^[t]420 talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba

10 ^(AU)Now when the ^(AV)queen of ^(AW)Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon in relation to the name of the Lord, she came ^(AX)to test him with riddles. ² So she came to Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels ^(AY)carrying balsam oil and a very large quantity of gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she spoke to him about everything that was in her heart. ³ And Solomon ^[u]answered all her questions; nothing was concealed from the king which he did not explain to her. ⁴ When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, ⁵ and the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their attire, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he offered at the house of the Lord, ^[v]she was breathless. ⁶ Then she said to the king, “It was a true ^[w]story that I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. ⁷ But I did not believe the ^[x]stories until I came and my own eyes saw it all. And behold, the half of it was not reported to me. You have exceeded in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard. ^8 (AZ)Blessed are your men, and blessed are these servants of yours who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom! ^9 (BA)Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to put you on the throne of Israel; ^(BB)because the Lord loves Israel forever, He made you king, ^(BC)to do justice and righteousness.” ¹⁰ Then ^(BD)she gave the king ^[y]120 talents of gold, and a very large amount of balsam oil and precious stones. Never again did such a large quantity of balsam oil come in as that which the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.

^11 (BE)And the ships of Hiram as well, which brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir a very great number of almug trees and precious stones. ^12 (BF)The king made from the almug trees supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, and lyres and harps for the singers; such almug trees have not come in again, nor have they been seen to this day.

¹³ And King Solomon granted the queen of Sheba everything she desired, whatever she requested, besides what he gave her in proportion to ^[z]his royal bounty. Then she ^[aa]departed and went to her own land ^[ab]together with her servants.

Wealth, Splendor, and Wisdom

^14 (BG)Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was ^[ac]666 talents of gold, ¹⁵ besides that from the traders, and the ^[ad]wares of the merchants and all the kings of the ^(BH)Arabs and the governors of the country. ^16 (BI)King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, ^[ae]using six hundred shekels of gold on each large shield. ¹⁷ And he made ^(BJ)three hundred small shields of beaten gold, ^[af]using ^[ag]three minas of gold on each shield; and ^(BK)the king put them in the house of the timber of Lebanon. ¹⁸ Moreover, the king made a large throne of ^(BL)ivory and overlaid it with fine gold. ¹⁹ There were six steps to the throne and a round top to the throne at its back, and ^[ah]armrests ^[ai]on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the ^[aj]armrests. ²⁰ Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other; nothing like it was made for ^[ak]any other kingdom. ²¹ Now all King Solomon’s drinking utensils were of gold, and all the utensils of the house of the timber of Lebanon were of pure gold. None was of silver; it was not considered as amounting to anything in the days of Solomon. ²² For ^(BM)the king had the ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s ships; once every three years the ships of Tarshish would come carrying gold and silver, ivory, monkeys, and peacocks.

^23 (BN)So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom. ²⁴ And all the earth was seeking the ^[al]attention of Solomon, ^(BO)to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. ²⁵ And ^(BP)they were bringing, everyone, ^[am]a gift: articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, balsam oil, horses, and mules, so much year by year.

^26 (BQ)Now Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; and he had 1,400 chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he ^[an]stationed them in the ^(BR)chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ^27 (BS)And the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the ^[ao]lowland. ^28 (BT)Also Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s merchants acquired them from Kue for a price. ²⁹ A chariot ^[ap]was imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for 150; and ^[aq]by the same means they exported them ^(BU)to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of the Arameans.

Solomon Turns from God

11 Now ^(BV)King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ² from the nations of which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “^(BW)You shall not ^[ar]associate with them, nor shall they ^[as]associate with you; they will certainly turn your heart away ^[at]to follow their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. ^3 (BX)He had seven hundred wives, who were ^[au]princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. ⁴ For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away ^[av]to follow other gods; and ^(BY)his heart was not ^[aw]wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of his father David had been. ⁵ For Solomon became a follower of ^(BZ)Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and of ^[ax](CA)Milcom the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. ⁶ So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as his father David had done. ⁷ Then Solomon built a high place for ^(CB)Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab, on the mountain that is ^[ay]east of Jerusalem, and for ^(CC)Molech, the abhorrent idol of the sons of Ammon. ⁸ He also did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

⁹ Now ^(CD)the Lord was angry with Solomon ^(CE)because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, ^(CF)who had appeared to him twice, ¹⁰ and ^(CG)had commanded him regarding this thing, that he was not to follow other gods; but he did not comply with what the Lord had commanded. ¹¹ So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since ^[az]you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, ^(CH)I will certainly tear the kingdom away from you, and will give it to your servant. ¹² However, I will not do it in your days, only for the sake of your father David; but I will tear it away from the hand of your son. ¹³ Yet ^(CI)I will not tear away all the kingdom, but ^(CJ)I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and ^(CK)for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”