1 Kings 9:15-28

Common English Bible

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.^{[a] 26} King Solomon built a fleet near Eloth in Ezion-geber, on the coast of the Reed Sea^[b] 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.