1 Kings 9
English Standard Version
The Lord Appears to Solomon
9 (A)As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord (B)and the king's house and (C)all that Solomon desired to build, 2 (D)the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, (E)by putting my name there forever. (F)My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 4 And as for you, if you will (G)walk before me, (H)as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 (I)then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 (J)But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 (K)then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, (L)and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, (M)and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins.[a] Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, (N)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will say, ‘Because (O)they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’”
Solomon's Other Acts
10 (P)At the end of (Q)twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house, 11 and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. 13 Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of (R)Cabul to this day. 14 Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents[b] of gold.
15 And this is the account of (S)the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the Lord and his own house and (T)the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and (U)Hazor and (V)Megiddo and Gezer 16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed (W)the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to (X)his daughter, Solomon's wife; 17 so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and (Y)Lower Beth-horon 18 and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,[c] 19 and all the store cities that Solomon had, and (Z)the cities for his chariots, and the cities for (AA)his horsemen, and whatever Solomon (AB)desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20 All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel— 21 (AC)their descendants who were left after them in the land, (AD)whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction[d]—(AE)these Solomon drafted to be (AF)slaves, and so they are to this day. 22 But (AG)of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.
23 These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work: (AH)550 (AI)who had charge of the people who carried on the work.
24 But (AJ)Pharaoh's daughter went up from the city of David to (AK)her own house that Solomon had built for her. (AL)Then he built (AM)the Millo.
25 Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the Lord, making offerings with it[e] before the Lord. So he finished the house.
26 King Solomon built a fleet of ships at (AN)Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent (AO)with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they went to (AP)Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 9:8 Syriac, Old Latin; Hebrew will become high
- 1 Kings 9:14 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
- 1 Kings 9:18 Hebrew lacks of Judah
- 1 Kings 9:21 That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
- 1 Kings 9:25 Septuagint lacks with it
1 Kings 9
Common English Bible
Solomon again meets God
9 Now once Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and everything else he wanted to accomplish, 2 the Lord appeared to him a second time in the same way he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your cry to me. I have set apart this temple that you built, to put my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 4 As for you, if you walk before me just as your father David did, with complete dedication and honesty, and if you do all that I have commanded, and keep my regulations and case laws, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, just as I promised your father David, ‘You will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ 6 However, if you or your sons turn away from following me and don’t observe the commands and regulations that I gave you, and go to serve other gods, and worship them, 7 then I will remove Israel from the land I gave them and I will reject the temple that I dedicated for my name. Israel will become a joke, insulted by everyone. 8 Everyone who passes by this temple, so lofty now,[a] will be shocked and will whistle, wondering, Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and this temple? 9 The answer will come: Because they deserted the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt’s land. They embraced other gods, worshipping and serving them. That is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.”
Solomon’s buildings and prosperity
10 It took twenty years for Solomon to build the two structures, the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. 11 King Hiram of Tyre gave Solomon all the cedar, pinewood, and gold that he wanted. Then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the region of Galilee. 12 Hiram went from Tyre to inspect the towns Solomon had given him. They didn’t seem adequate in his view. 13 So Hiram remarked, “My brother, are these towns you’ve given me good for anything?” The cities are thus called the land of Cabul to this very day. 14 But Hiram sent the king one hundred twenty gold kikkars, nevertheless.
15 This is the story of the labor gang that King Solomon put together to build the Lord’s temple and his own palace, as well as the stepped structure, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer: (16 Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, had attacked and captured Gezer, setting it on fire. He killed the Canaanites who lived in the city and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.) 17 Solomon built Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, 18 Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness (within the land), 19 along with all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, as well as the cities used for storing chariots and cavalry and whatever he wanted to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his kingdom. 20 Any non-Israelite people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites— 21 that is, the descendants of such people who were still in the land because the Israelites weren’t able to wipe them out—Solomon forced into the labor gangs that are still in existence today. 22 However, Solomon didn’t force the Israelites to work as slaves; instead, they became warriors, his servants, his leaders, his officers, and those in charge of his chariots and cavalry.
23 These were the chief officers over Solomon’s work: five hundred fifty had charge of the people who did the work. 24 When Pharaoh’s daughter went up from David’s City to the palace he had built for her, Solomon built the stepped structure. 25 Three times a year Solomon would offer entirely burned offerings and well-being sacrifices on the altar that he had built for the Lord. Along with this he would burn incense to the Lord. In this way, he completed the temple.[b] 26 King Solomon built a fleet near Eloth in Ezion-geber, on the coast of the Reed Sea[c] in the land of Edom. 27 Hiram sent his expert sailors on the fleet along with Solomon’s workers. 28 They went to Ophir for four hundred twenty kikkars of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 9:8 Or will become high; OL, Syr, Tg will become a ruin
- 1 Kings 9:25 Heb uncertain
- 1 Kings 9:26 Traditionally Red Sea
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible