1 Kings 9-10

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

9 When Solomon finished the building of the Lord’s house and the king’s house, and all he desired and was pleased to do,

² The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³ The Lord told him, I have heard your prayer and supplication which you have made before Me; I have hallowed this house which you have built, and I have put My Name [and My Presence] there forever. My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.

⁴ And if you will walk before Me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, keeping My statutes and My precepts,

⁵ Then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, There shall not fail you [to have] a man upon the throne of Israel.

⁶ But if you turn away from following Me, you or your children, and will not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you but go and serve other gods and worship them,

⁷ Then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them, and this house I have hallowed for My Name (renown) I will cast from My sight. And Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.

⁸ This house shall become a heap of ruins; every passerby shall be astonished and shall hiss [with surprise] and say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?

⁹ Then they will answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, Who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have laid hold of other gods and have worshiped and served them; therefore the Lord has brought on them all this evil.

¹⁰ At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord’s house and the king’s house,

¹¹ For which Hiram king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with as much cedar and cypress timber and gold as he desired, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

¹² And Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they did not please him.

¹³ He said, What are these cities worth which you have given me, my brother? So they are called the Cabul [unproductive] Land to this day.

¹⁴ And Hiram sent to the king 120 talents of gold.

¹⁵ This is the account of the levy [of forced labor] which King Solomon raised to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶ For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer, burned it with fire, slew the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

¹⁷ So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸ Baalath and Tamar (Tadmor) in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,

¹⁹ And all the store cities which Solomon had and cities for his chariots and cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build ^[a]for his pleasure in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

²⁰ As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites,

²¹ Their children who were left after them in the land, whom the Israelites were not able utterly to destroy, of them Solomon made a forced levy of slaves to this day.

²² But Solomon made no slaves of the Israelites; they were the soldiers, his officials, attendants, commanders, captains, chariot officers, and horsemen.

²³ These were the chief officers over Solomon’s work, 550 who had charge of the people who did the work.

²⁴ But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of the City of David to her house which Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo.

²⁵ Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he built to the Lord, and he burned incense with them before the Lord. So he finished the house.

²⁶ And King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in Edom.

²⁷ And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

²⁸ They came to Ophir and got 420 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.

10 When the queen of Sheba heard of [the constant connection of] the fame of Solomon with the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions (problems and riddles).

² She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels bearing spices, very much gold, and precious stones. When she had come to Solomon, she communed with him about all that was in her mind.

³ Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king which he failed to explain to her.

⁴ When the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom and skill, the house he had built,

⁵ The food of his table, the seating of his officials, the standing at attention of his servants, their apparel, his cupbearers, his ascent by which he went up to the house of the Lord [or the burnt offerings he sacrificed], she was breathless and overcome.

⁶ She said to the king, It was a true report I heard in my own land of your acts and sayings and wisdom.

⁷ I did not believe it until I came and my eyes had seen. Behold, the half was not told me. You have added wisdom and goodness exceeding the fame I heard.

⁸ Happy are your men! Happy are these your servants who stand continually before you, hearing your wisdom!

⁹ Blessed be the Lord your God, Who delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, He made you king to execute justice and righteousness.

¹⁰ And she gave the king 120 talents of gold and of spices a very great store and precious stones. Never again came such abundance of spices as these the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.

¹¹ The navy also of Hiram brought from Ophir gold and a great plenty of almug (algum) wood and precious stones.

¹² Of the almug wood the king made pillars for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, and lyres also and harps for the singers. No such almug wood came again or has been seen to this day.

¹³ King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she wanted, whatever she asked, besides his gifts to her from his royal bounty. So she returned to her own country, she and her servants.

¹⁴ Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one [particular] year was 666 talents of gold,

¹⁵ Besides what the traders brought and the traffic of the merchants and from all the [tributary] kings and governors of the land of Arabia.

¹⁶ King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield.

¹⁷ And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸ Also the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with the finest gold.

¹⁹ The throne had six steps, and attached at the rear of the top of the throne was a round covering or canopy. On either side of the seat were armrests, and two lions stood beside the armrests.

²⁰ Twelve lions stood there, one on either end of each of the six steps; there was nothing like it ever made in any kingdom.

²¹ All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.

²² For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

²³ So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom (skill).

²⁴ And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his mind.

²⁵ Every man brought tribute: vessels of silver and gold, garments, equipment, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.

²⁶ Solomon collected chariots and horsemen; he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

²⁷ The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees in the lowlands.

²⁸ Solomon’s horses were brought out of Egypt, and the king’s merchants received them in droves, each at a price.^(A)

²⁹ A chariot could be brought out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150. And so to all the kings of the Hittites and of Syria they were exported by the king’s merchants.