David’s Address about the Temple

28 David assembled at Jerusalem all the leaders (officials) of Israel, the leaders of the tribes, and the commanders of the divisions that served the king, and the commanders of thousands, and the commanders of hundreds, and the overseers of all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, with the palace officers and the mighty men, and all the brave warriors. ² Then David the king rose to his feet and said, “Hear me, my brothers [in arms] and my people. I had intended to build a permanent home for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and as a footstool for our God, and I prepared materials for the building. ³ But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for My Name (Presence), because you are a man of war and have shed blood.’ ⁴ However, the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from all in my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For He has chosen Judah to be the leader; and in the house (tribe) of Judah he chose the house of my father; and among the sons of my father He was pleased to make me king over all Israel. ⁵ Of all my sons (for the Lord has given me many sons) He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. ⁶ He said to me, ‘Solomon your son shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a father to him. ^7 [a]I will establish his kingdom forever if he loyally and continually obeys My commandments and My ordinances, as is done today.’ ⁸ Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek after all the commandments of the Lord your God so that you may possess the good land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons after you forever.

⁹ “As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father [have personal knowledge of Him, be acquainted with, and understand Him; appreciate, heed, and cherish Him] and serve Him with a blameless heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and minds, and understands every intent and inclination of the thoughts. If you seek Him [inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him as your first and vital necessity] He will let you find Him; but ^[b]if you abandon (turn away from) Him, He will reject you forever. ¹⁰ Consider this carefully, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be courageous and strong and do it.”

¹¹ Then David gave to his son Solomon the plan for the porch of the temple, its buildings, its treasuries, its upper chambers, its inner rooms, and for the place for the [ark and its] mercy seat; ¹² and the plan of all that he had in ^[c]mind, for the courts of the house of the Lord, and for all the surrounding rooms, for the storerooms of the house of God and for the storerooms for the dedicated gifts and offerings; ¹³ the plan for the divisions of the priests and the Levites and for all the work of the service in the house of the Lord and for all the utensils for service in the house of the Lord; ¹⁴ for the golden utensils, the weight of gold and silver for all the gold and silver articles for every kind of service; ¹⁵ and the weight of gold for the golden lampstands and their golden lamps, with the weight of each lampstand and its lamps; and the weight of silver for the silver lampstands, with the weight of each lampstand and its lamps according to the use of each lampstand; ¹⁶ the gold by weight for each table of showbread, and the silver for the tables of silver; ¹⁷ and the forks, the basins, and the pitchers of pure gold; and for the golden bowls with the weight for each bowl; and for the silver bowls with the weight for each bowl; ¹⁸ and for the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the model of the chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the Lord’s covenant.

¹⁹ “All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the work and details [to be done] according to this plan.”

²⁰ Then David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and take action; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor ^[d]abandon you [but will guide you in the construction] until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. ²¹ And see, [you have] the divisions of the priests and Levites for all the service of God’s house, and every willing, skillful man will be with you in all the kinds of work for any kind of service. Also the officers and all the people will be entirely at your command.”

Offerings for the Temple

29 And King David said to all the assembly, “My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen, is still young and inexperienced and the work is great; for the ^[e]temple is not for man but for the Lord God. ² So with all my ability I have provided for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver, bronze for the things of bronze, iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, as well as onyx stones and stones to be inlaid, stones of antimony (a brittle, silvery-white metal) and stones of various colors, and all kinds of precious stones and alabaster in abundance. ³ Moreover, because I delight in the house of my God, the [personal] treasure that I have of gold and silver, I give to the house of my God, in addition to all that I have already provided for the holy house: ⁴ namely, 3,000 talents of gold from the gold of Ophir, and 7,000 talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the buildings; ⁵ gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver, that is, for all the work to be done by craftsmen. Now who is willing to ^[f]consecrate himself today to the Lord?”

⁶ Then the rulers of the fathers’ households, and leaders of the tribes of Israel, and the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with the overseers of the king’s work, offered willingly ⁷ and gave for the service of the house of God: 5,000 talents and 10,000 darics of gold, and 10,000 talents of silver, and 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron. ⁸ Whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. ⁹ Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole and blameless heart they had offered freely to the Lord. King David also rejoiced greatly.

David’s Prayer

¹⁰ Therefore David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly and said, “Blessed (praised, adored, and thanked) are You, O Lord God of Israel (Jacob) our father, forever and ever. ¹¹ Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and on the earth; Yours is the dominion and kingdom, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. ¹² Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand is power and might; and it is in Your hands to make great and to give strength to everyone. ¹³ Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name.

¹⁴ “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You. ¹⁵ For we are ^[g]sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope [of remaining]. ¹⁶ O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy Name, it is from Your hand, and is all Your own. ¹⁷ I know also, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness and integrity. In the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. So now with joy I have seen Your people who are present here, make their offerings willingly and freely to You. ¹⁸ O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the minds of Your people, and direct their hearts toward You; ¹⁹ and give to my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies, and Your statutes, and to do all [that is necessary] to build the temple [for You], for which I have made provision.”

²⁰ Then David said to all the assembly, “Now bless (praise, thank) the Lord your God.” And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed down and honored the Lord and to the king [as His earthly representative].

Sacrifices

²¹ The next day they offered sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord: 1,000 bulls, 1,000 rams, and 1,000 lambs, with their drink offerings (libations) and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. ²² They ate and drank that day before the Lord with great rejoicing.

Solomon Again Made King

They made Solomon the son of David king a second time, and anointed him as ruler for the Lord and Zadok as [high] priest. ²³ Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king in place of David his father; and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. ²⁴ All of the leaders and warriors, and also all the sons of King David, pledged allegiance to King Solomon. ²⁵ The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed on him royal majesty which had not been on any king before him in Israel.

²⁶ Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. ²⁷ The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

Death of David

²⁸ He died in a good old age [his seventy-first year], full of days (satisfied), riches and honor. Solomon his son reigned in his place. ²⁹ Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles (records) of Samuel the seer, in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the chronicles of Gad the seer, ³⁰ with [accounts of] all his reign, and his power, and the times and circumstances which came on him, on Israel, and on all the kingdoms of the [surrounding] lands.

Solomon Worships at Gibeon

1 Solomon the son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.

² Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every leader in all Israel, the heads of the fathers’ (ancestors’) households. ³ Then Solomon and all the assembly went to the high place at Gibeon [to offer sacrifices, where the Canaanites had habitually worshiped], for God’s Tent of Meeting was there, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness. ⁴ But David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place he had prepared for it, because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. ⁵ Now the bronze altar, which Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was there before the tabernacle of the Lord, and Solomon and the assembly sought it out. ⁶ And Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the Lord at the Tent of Meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask what I shall give to you.”

Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom

⁸ Then Solomon said to God, “You have shown great lovingkindness and mercy to my father David, and have made me king in his place. ⁹ Now, O Lord God, Your promise to my father David is fulfilled, for You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰ Give me wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go out and come in [performing my duties] before this people, for [otherwise] who can rule and administer justice to this great people of Yours?” ¹¹ God replied to Solomon, “Because this was in your heart and you did not ask for riches, possessions or honor and personal glory, or the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for long life, but you have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself so that you may rule and administer justice to My people over whom I have made you king, ¹² wisdom and knowledge have been granted you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, such as none of the kings who were before you has possessed nor will those who will come after you.” ¹³ So Solomon went from the high place at Gibeon, from the Tent of Meeting, to Jerusalem. And he reigned over Israel.

Solomon’s Wealth

¹⁴ Solomon acquired chariots and horsemen; he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the cities [suited for the use] of chariots and with the king at Jerusalem. ¹⁵ The king made silver and gold as plentiful and common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as plentiful as the ^[a]sycamore-fig trees in the lowland. ¹⁶ Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from ^[b]Kue. The king’s merchants purchased them [in large numbers] from Kue ^[c]at a price. ¹⁷ And they imported chariots from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver apiece, and horses for 150 apiece; and in the same way they exported horses to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Arameans (Syrians).