The Lord Appears to Solomon

3 Solomon made an alliance^[a] with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying Pharaoh’s daughter.^(A) Solomon brought her to the city of David^(B) until he finished building his palace,^(C) the Lord’s temple,^(D) and the wall surrounding Jerusalem.^{(E) 2} However, the people were sacrificing on the high places,^(F) because until that time a temple for the Lord’s name^(G) had not been built. ³ Solomon loved the Lord^(H) by walking in the statutes of his father David,^(I) but he also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

⁴ The king went to Gibeon^(J) to sacrifice there because it was the most famous high place. He offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.^{(K) 5} At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon^(L) in a dream at night.^(M) God said, “Ask.^(N) What should I give you?”

⁶ And Solomon replied, “You have shown great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, righteousness, and integrity.^[b] You have continued this great and faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne,^(O) as it is today.^(P)

⁷ “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place.^(Q) Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership.^{[c](R) 8} Your servant is among your people you have chosen,^(S) a people too many to be numbered or counted.^{(T) 9} So give your servant a receptive heart to judge^(U) your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?” ^(V)

¹⁰ Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. ¹¹ So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life^[d] or riches for yourself,^(W) or the death^[e] of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice,^{(X) 12} I will therefore do what you have asked.^(Y) I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.^{(Z) 13} In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor,^(AA) so that no king will be your equal during your entire life.^{(AB) 14} If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”^(AC)

¹⁵ Then Solomon woke up^(AD) and realized it had been a dream.^(AE) He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant,^(AF) and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.^(AG) Then he held a feast^(AH) for all his servants.

Solomon’s Wisdom

¹⁶ Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.^{(AI) 17} One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was in the house. ¹⁸ On the third day after I gave birth, she also had a baby and we were alone. No one else^[f] was with us in the house; just the two of us were there. ¹⁹ During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. ²⁰ She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was asleep. She laid him in her arms, and she put her dead son in my arms. ²¹ When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead. That morning, when I looked closely at him I realized that he was not the son I gave birth to.”

²² “No,” the other woman said. “My son is the living one; your son is the dead one.”

The first woman said, “No, your son is the dead one; my son is the living one.” So they argued before the king.

²³ The king replied, “This woman says, ‘This is my son who is alive, and your son is dead,’ but that woman says, ‘No, your son is dead, and my son is alive.’” ²⁴ The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought the sword to the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Cut the living boy in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

²⁶ The woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she felt great compassion^[g](AJ) for her son. “My lord, give her the living baby,” she said, “but please don’t have him killed!”

But the other one said, “He will not be mine or yours. Cut him in two!”

²⁷ The king responded, “Give the living baby to the first woman, and don’t kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸ All Israel heard about the judgment the king had given, and they stood in awe of the king because they saw that God’s wisdom^(AK) was in him to carry out justice.

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:

I have heard your prayer and petition you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple you have built, to put^[a] my name there forever;^(D) my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.^(E)

⁴ As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances,^{(F) 5} I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.^(G)

⁶ If you or your sons turn away from following me and do not keep my commands—my statutes that I have set before you—and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,^{(H) 7} I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them,^(I) and I will reject^[b] the temple I have sanctified for my name.^(J) Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.^{(K) 8} Though this temple is now exalted,^[c] everyone who passes by will be appalled and will scoff.^[d] They will say, “Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?”^{(L) 9} Then they will say, “Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt. They held on to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, the Lord brought all this ruin on them.”^(M)

King Hiram’s Twenty Towns

¹⁰ At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord’s temple and the royal palace^(N)— ¹¹ King Hiram of Tyre^(O) having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold^(P) for his every wish^(Q)—King Solomon gave Hiram twenty 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,^[e] as they are still called today.^{(R) 14} Now Hiram had sent the king nine thousand pounds^[f] 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, 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^[g][h] 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, Hethites, 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 destroy completely^(AF)—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is still this way 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 supervised 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—sixteen tons^[i]—and delivered it to Solomon.^(AR)