The Lord’s Response

9 When Solomon finished building the temple of the Lord,^(A) the royal palace, and all that Solomon desired to do,^{(B) 2} the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time just as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.^{(C) 3} The Lord said to him:

King Hiram’s 20 Towns

¹⁰ At the end of 20 years during which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord’s temple and the royal palace^(N)— ¹¹ Hiram king of Tyre^(O) having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold^(P) for his every wish^(Q)—King Solomon gave Hiram 20 towns in the land of Galilee. ¹² So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them. ¹³ So he said, “What are these towns you’ve given me, my brother?” So he called them the Land of Cabul,^[d] as they are still called today.^{(R) 14} Now Hiram had sent the king 9,000 pounds^[e] of gold.^(S)

Solomon’s Forced Labor

¹⁵ This is the account of the forced labor^(T) that King Solomon had imposed to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces,^(U) the wall of Jerusalem,^(V) and Hazor,^(W) Megiddo,^(X) and Gezer.^{(Y) 16} Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He then burned it down, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.^{(Z) 17} Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,^{(AA) 18} Baalath,^(AB) Tamar^[f][g] in the Wilderness of Judah, ¹⁹ all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities,^(AC) the cavalry cities,^(AD) and whatever Solomon desired to build^(AE) in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

²⁰ As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites— ²¹ their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to completely destroy^(AF)—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way until today.^{(AG) 22} But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to slavery;^(AH) they were soldiers, his servants, his commanders, his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. ²³ These were the deputies^(AI) who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who ruled over the people doing the work.^(AJ)

Solomon’s Other Activities

²⁴ Pharaoh’s daughter moved from the city of David^(AK) to the house that Solomon had built for her;^(AL) he then built the terraces.^(AM)

²⁵ Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, and he burned incense with them in the Lord’s presence.^(AN) So he completed the temple.^(AO)

²⁶ King Solomon put together a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber,^(AP) which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. ²⁷ With the fleet, Hiram sent his servants, experienced seamen, along with Solomon’s servants. ²⁸ They went to Ophir^(AQ) and acquired gold there—16 tons^[h]—and delivered it to Solomon.^(AR)