I. The Reign of Solomon

Chapter 1

Solomon at Gibeon. ¹ Solomon, son of David, strengthened his hold on the kingdom, for the Lord, his God, was with him, making him ever greater. ² Solomon summoned all Israel, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, the judges, the princes of all Israel, and the family heads; ^3 (A)and, accompanied by the whole assembly, Solomon went to the high place at Gibeon, because the tent of meeting of God, made in the wilderness by Moses, the Lord’s servant, was there. ⁴ David had, however, brought up the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to Jerusalem, where he had provided a place and pitched a tent for it; ⁵ the bronze altar made by Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, he put in front of the tabernacle of the Lord.^[a] There Solomon and the assembly sought out the Lord,^{(B) 6} and Solomon offered sacrifice in the Lord’s presence on the bronze altar at the tent of meeting; he sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings upon it.

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him: Whatever you ask, I will give you. ⁸ Solomon answered God: “You have shown great favor to David my father, and you have made me king to succeed him. ⁹ Now, Lord God, may your word to David my father be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.^{(C) 10} Give me, therefore, wisdom and knowledge to govern this people, for otherwise who could rule this vast people of yours?” ¹¹ God then replied to Solomon: Because this has been your wish—you did not ask for riches, treasures, and glory, or the life of those who hate you, or even for a long life for yourself, but you have asked for wisdom and knowledge in order to rule my people over whom I have made you king— ¹² wisdom and knowledge are given you. I will also give you riches, treasures, and glory, such as kings before you never had, nor will those who come after you.

Solomon’s Wealth. ¹³ Solomon returned to Jerusalem from the high place at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting, and became king over Israel. ¹⁴ Solomon amassed chariots and horses: he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses; these he allocated among the chariot cities and to the king’s service in Jerusalem.^{(D) 15} The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as numerous as the sycamores of the Shephelah.^{(E) 16} Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Cilicia,^[b] where the king’s agents purchased them at the prevailing price.^{(F) 17} A chariot imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, a horse one hundred and fifty shekels; so they were exported to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.^(G)

Preparations for the Temple. ¹⁸ Solomon gave orders for the building of a house for the name of the Lord and also a king’s house for himself.

Chapter 2

¹ Solomon conscripted seventy thousand men to carry stones and eighty thousand to cut the stones in the mountains, and over these he placed three thousand six hundred overseers.^{(H) 2 (I)}Moreover, Solomon sent this message to Huram, king of Tyre: “As you dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build a house for his dwelling— ³ now I am going to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God, and to consecrate it to him, for the burning of fragrant incense in his presence, for the perpetual display of the showbread, for burnt offerings morning and evening, and for the sabbaths, new moons, and festivals of the Lord, our God: such is Israel’s perpetual obligation.^{(J) 4} And the house I am going to build must be great, for our God is greater than all other gods. ⁵ Yet who is really able to build him a house, since the heavens and even the highest heavens cannot contain him? And who am I that I should build him a house,^(K) unless it be to offer incense in his presence? ⁶ Now, send me men skilled at work in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, in purple, crimson, and violet fabrics, and who know how to do engraved work, to join the skilled craftsmen who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father appointed. ⁷ Also send me boards of cedar, cypress and cabinet wood from Lebanon, for I realize that your servants know how to cut the wood of Lebanon. My servants will work with yours ⁸ in order to prepare for me a great quantity of wood, since the house I intend to build must be great and wonderful. ⁹ I will furnish as food for your servants, the woodcutters, twenty thousand kors of wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.”^[c](L)

¹⁰ Huram, king of Tyre, wrote an answer which he sent to Solomon: “Because the Lord loves his people, he has placed you over them as king.” ¹¹ He added: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for having given King David a wise son of intelligence and understanding, who will build a house for the Lord and also his own royal house.^{(M) 12 (N)}I am now sending you a craftsman of great skill, Huram-abi, ¹³ son of a Danite woman^[d] and of a father from Tyre; he knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, with stone and wood, with purple, violet, fine linen, and crimson, and also how to do all kinds of engraved work and to devise every type of design that may be given him and your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my lord David your father. ^14 (O)And now, let my lord send to his servants the wheat, barley, oil, and wine which he has promised. ¹⁵ For our part, we will cut trees on Lebanon, as many as you need, and send them down to you in rafts to the port of Joppa, whence you may take them up to Jerusalem.”^(P)

^16 (Q)Thereupon Solomon took a census of all the alien men resident in the land of Israel (following the census David his father had taken of them); they were found to number one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred. ¹⁷ Of these he made seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to keep the people working.^(R)

Chapter 3

Building of the Temple. ^1 (S)Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah,^[e] which had been shown to David his father, in the place David had prepared, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ² He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. ³ These were the specifications laid down by Solomon for building the house of God: the length was sixty cubits according to the old measure, and the width was twenty cubits;^{(T) 4} the front porch along the width of the house was also twenty cubits, and it was twenty cubits high.^[f] He covered its interior with pure gold.^{(U) 5} The nave he overlaid with cypress wood and overlaid that with fine gold, embossing on it palms and chains.^{(V) 6} He also covered the house with precious stones for splendor; the gold was from Parvaim. ⁷ The house, its beams and thresholds, as well as its walls and its doors, he overlaid with gold, and he engraved cherubim upon the walls. ⁸ He also made the room of the holy of holies. Its length corresponded to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width was also twenty cubits. He overlaid it with fine gold to the amount of six hundred talents.^{(W) 9} The weight of the nails was fifty gold shekels. The upper chambers he likewise overlaid with gold.

^10 (X)For the room of the holy of holies he made two cherubim of carved workmanship, which were then covered with gold. ¹¹ The wings of the cherubim spanned twenty cubits: one wing of each cherub, five cubits in length, extended to a wall of the house, while the other wing, also five cubits in length, touched the corresponding wing of the other cherub. ¹² The wing of the cherub, five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and the other wing, five cubits, was joined to the wing of the other cherub. ¹³ The combined wingspread of the two cherubim was thus twenty cubits. They stood upon their own feet, facing toward the nave. ¹⁴ He made the veil^[g] of violet, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and had cherubim embroidered upon it.^(Y)

^15 (Z)In front of the house he set two columns thirty-five cubits high; the capital of each was five cubits. ¹⁶ He devised chains in the form of a collar with which he encircled the capitals of the columns, and he made a hundred pomegranates which he set on the chains. ¹⁷ He set up the columns to correspond with the nave, one for the right side and the other for the left, and he called the one to the right Jachin and the one to the left Boaz.

Chapter 17

Chapter 5

Faith, Hope, and Love.^{[a] 1} Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace^[b] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,^{(A) 2} through whom we have gained access [by faith] to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.^{(B) 3} Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope,^{(C) 5} and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.^{(D) 6} For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. ⁷ Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.^{[c] 8} But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.^{(E) 9} How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath.^{(F) 10} Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.^{(G) 11} Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Humanity’s Sin Through Adam. ^12 [d]Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world,^(H) and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned^[e]— ¹³ for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law.^{(I) 14} But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come.^(J)

Grace and Life Through Christ. ¹⁵ But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by that one person’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many. ¹⁶ And the gift is not like the result of the one person’s sinning. For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation; but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal. ¹⁷ For if, by the transgression of one person, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one person Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all.^{(K) 19} For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.^{(L) 20} The law entered in^[f] so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more,^{(M) 21} so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.^(N)