1 Kings 9
Contemporary English Version
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.
Footnotes
- 9.8 a pile of rocks: Some ancient translations; Hebrew “high.”
- 9.13 Cabul … worthless: Cabul sounds like the Hebrew word for “worthless.”
- 9.15 fill … Jerusalem: The Hebrew text has “build the Millo,” which probably refers to a landfill to strengthen and extend the hill where the city was built.
- 9.24 the older … Jerusalem: See the note at 3.1.
- 9.24 the land … filled in: See the note at 9.15.
- 9.26 Red Sea: Hebrew yam suph, here referring to the Gulf of Aqaba, since the term is extended to include the northeastern arm of the Red Sea (see also the note at Exodus 13.11).
- 9.27,28 Ophir: The location of this place is not known.
1 Kings 9
Lexham English Bible
Yahweh’s Challenge to Solomon
9 It happened that as Solomon finished the building of the house of Yahweh, the king’s house, and all the things Solomon desired to do, 2 Yahweh appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him in Gibeon. 3 Yahweh said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house which you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 4 As for you, if you walk before me as David your father walked, with integrity of heart[a] and with uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep my ordinances and my judgments, 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘A man will not be cut off for you from upon the throne of Israel.’
6 “If ever you or any of your descendants[b] turn from following me and do not keep my commandments and my ordinances that I have set before you and you go and serve other gods and bow down to them, 7 then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land that I have given to them, even the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast away from my face; and Israel shall become a proverb and an object of taunting among all the peoples. 8 This house shall become a heap of ruins; all those passing by will be appalled by it and hiss, and they will say, ‘On what account did Yahweh do this to this land and to this house?’ 9 And they will say, ‘Because they have forsaken Yahweh their God who brought their ancestors[c] out from the land of Egypt and they embraced other gods and bowed down to them and served them. Therefore, Yahweh brought on them all of this disaster.’”
Solomon and Hiram Complete Their Agreement
10 It happened at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Yahweh and the house of the king, 11 since Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with wood of cedar and with wood of cypresses and with the gold according to all his desire, then King Solomon gave twenty cities in the land of the Galilee to Hiram. 12 So Hiram went out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, but they were not right in his eyes. 13 So he said, “What are these cities that you have given to me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul until this day.[d] 14 Then Hiram sent to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.
Solomon’s Accomplishments
15 This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the house of Yahweh and his house, the Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16 Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had gone up and captured Gezer and burnt it with fire. He had also killed the Canaanites who were living in the city and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, the wife of Solomon. 17 Solomon rebuilt Gezer and Lower Beth-Horon, 18 as well as Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness in the land; 19 and he also built all of the storage cities which were Solomon’s, the cities for the chariots, the cities for the cavalry, and all of Solomon’s desire that he wanted[e] to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion.
20 All of the people who were remaining from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites who were not of the Israelites,[f] 21 their children who remained after them in the land, whom the Israelites[g] were not able to completely destroy, Solomon conscripted them for forced labor, until this very day. 22 But from the Israelites[h] Solomon did not make a slave, but they were the men of war, his officers, his commanders, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. 23 These were the commanders of the overseers who were over the work for Solomon, five hundred and fifty, ruling over the people doing the work.
24 As soon as the daughter of Pharaoh went up from the city of David to her house which he[i] built for her, then he built the Millo.
25 Solomon sacrificed three times a year: burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar that he had built to Yahweh, and he offered incense with it before Yahweh; and so he completed the house.
26 King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber which is near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea[j] in the land of Edom. 27 Hiram sent his servants with the fleet of ships, sailors[k] who knew the sea, with the servants of Solomon. 28 They went to Ophir and imported from there four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and they brought it to King Solomon.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 9:4 Literally “in blamelessness of heart”
- 1 Kings 9:6 Or “children”
- 1 Kings 9:9 Or “fathers”
- 1 Kings 9:13 Literally “So he called them the land of Cabul up to this day”
- 1 Kings 9:19 Or “desired”
- 1 Kings 9:20 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- 1 Kings 9:21 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- 1 Kings 9:22 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- 1 Kings 9:24 That is, Solomon
- 1 Kings 9:26 Literally “sea of reed”
- 1 Kings 9:27 Literally “men of ships”
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