2 Chronicles 6-10

Amplified Bible

Solomon’s Dedication

6 Then Solomon said,

³ Then the king turned around and blessed the entire assembly of Israel, while they were all standing. ⁴ And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled with His hands what He promised, saying, ⁵ ‘Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city among all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house so that My Name (Presence) might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a leader over My people Israel; ⁶ but I have chosen Jerusalem that My Name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’ ⁷ Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ⁸ But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was ^[a]in your heart to build a house for My Name, you did well that it was in your heart. ⁹ Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will be born to you, he shall build the house for My Name.’ ¹⁰ Now the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in place of my father David and I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹¹ There I have placed the ark [the symbol of His Presence] in which is the covenant of the Lord [the Ten Commandments], which He made with the people (descendants) of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

¹² Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. ¹³ For Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits square and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the courtyard; and he stood on it, and he knelt down on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, ¹⁴ and he said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like You in heaven or on the earth, keeping covenant and showing mercy and lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You [in obedience] with all their heart, ¹⁵ [You] who have kept Your promise to Your servant David, my father, that which You told him; You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is today. ¹⁶ Now therefore, O Lord, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David, my father, that which You promised him, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel, provided your sons are careful to walk in My law as you, [David,] have walked before Me.’ ¹⁷ Now then, O Lord, the God of Israel, let Your word which You have spoken to Your servant David be confirmed (verified).

¹⁸ “But will God actually dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built! ¹⁹ Yet have regard for the prayer of Your servant and for his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You, ²⁰ that Your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place in which You have said that You would put Your Name (Presence), to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place. ²¹ So listen to the requests of Your servant and Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; and when You hear, forgive.

²² “If a man sins against his neighbor, and he is required to take an ^[b]oath, and he comes and takes the oath before Your altar in this house, ²³ then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, punishing the wicked by bringing his conduct on his own head, and providing justice to the righteous by giving to him in accordance with his righteousness (innocence).

²⁴ “If Your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house, ²⁵ then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which You gave to them and to their fathers.

²⁶ “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict and humble them; ²⁷ then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.

²⁸ “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there are [migratory] locusts or grasshoppers, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, ²⁹ then whatever prayer or request is made by any man or all of Your people Israel, each knowing his own suffering and his own pain, and stretching out his hands toward this house, ³⁰ then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each ^[c]in accordance with all his ways, whose heart You know; for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men, ³¹ so that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways [in obedience to You] as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

³² “Also in regard to the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty power and Your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this house, ³³ then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and fear You [reverently and worshipfully], as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your Name.

³⁴ “When Your people go out to war against their enemies, by the way that You send them, and they pray to You facing this city [Jerusalem] which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your Name, ³⁵ then hear from heaven their prayer and their request, and maintain their cause and do justice.

³⁶ “When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and hand them over to an enemy, so that they take them away captive to a land far away or near, ³⁷ if they take it to heart in the land where they have been taken captive, and repent and pray to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong and have acted wickedly’; ³⁸ if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, and pray facing their land which You have given to their fathers and toward the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your Name; ³⁹ then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and requests, and maintain their cause and do justice and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.

^40 [d]“Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

⁴¹ “Now then arise, O Lord God, [and come] to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength and power. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in [Your] goodness.

⁴² “O Lord God, do not turn away and reject the face of Your anointed; remember Your lovingkindness and faithfulness to Your servant David.”

The Shekinah Glory

7 When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the [^[e]Shekinah] glory and brilliance of the Lord filled the house.^{(A) 2} The priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory and brilliance of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. ³ When all the people of Israel saw how the fire came down and saw the glory and brilliance of the Lord upon the house, they bowed down on the stone pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever.”

Sacrifices Offered

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered a sacrifice before the Lord. ⁵ King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. In this way the king and all the people dedicated God’s house. ⁶ The priests stood at their posts [ready for service], and the Levites also, with the musical instruments of the Lord which King David had made to praise the Lord, saying, “For His lovingkindness and mercy endure forever,” whenever David offered praise through their ministry. The priests were opposite the Levites blowing the trumpets and all Israel was standing.

⁷ Moreover, Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was in front of the house of the Lord, for it was there that he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar which he had made was not sufficient to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat [all together].

The Feast of Dedication

⁸ At that time Solomon observed the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very large assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt. ⁹ On the eighth day they held a celebration, for they had observed the dedication of the altar for seven days, and the feast for seven days. ¹⁰ And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon sent the people to their tents, rejoicing and happy in heart because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David, to Solomon, and to His people Israel.

God’s Promise and Warning

¹¹ And so Solomon finished the house (temple) of the Lord and the palace of the king. He successfully accomplished all that he had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his palace.

¹² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³ If I shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or if I command locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence and plague among My people, ¹⁴ and My people, who are called by My Name, humble themselves, and pray and seek (crave, require as a necessity) My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear [them] from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer offered in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and sanctified and set apart for My purpose this house that My Name may be here forever, and My eyes and My heart will be here perpetually. ¹⁷ As for you [Solomon], if you will ^[f]walk before me as your father David walked, and do everything that I have commanded you, and observe My statutes and My ordinances,^{(B) 18} then I will establish your royal throne just as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘You will not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’

¹⁹ “But if you [people] turn away and abandon My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and you go and serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot Israel from My land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have consecrated for My Name, out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and an object of scorn among all nations.^{(C) 21} And as for this house, which was so exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ ²² Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity and evil on them.’”

Solomon’s Activities and Accomplishments

8 Now it came about at the end of the twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house (palace), ² that he built and fortified ^[g]the cities which Huram (Hiram) had given to him, and settled the Israelites there.

³ Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it. ⁴ He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all his storage cities in Hamath. ⁵ He also built upper Beth-horon and lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars [to lock the gates]; ⁶ and Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land under his rule.

⁷ All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, ⁸ but were descendants of those who were left in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed—Solomon brought them up as forced laborers to this day. ⁹ But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites for his work; they were men of war, his chief captains, and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen. ¹⁰ These were the chief officers of King Solomon, two hundred and fifty [in authority] who ruled over the people.

¹¹ Then Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David into the house (palace) he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”

¹² Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built in front of the porch [of the temple], ¹³ a certain number every day, offering them up as Moses commanded for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles).

¹⁴ Now in accordance with the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties of praise and ministering and serving before the priests as every day required, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for David the man of God had so commanded. ¹⁵ And they did not deviate from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any respect or in regard to the storehouses or treasuries.

¹⁶ Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out from the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the shore of the [Red] Sea in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ And Huram (Hiram) sent him, by his servants, ships and servants familiar with the sea; and they went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, and took from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to King Solomon.

Visit of the Queen of Sheba

9 When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with riddles. She was accompanied by a very large number of attendants, with camels bearing spices (balsam oil) and a large amount of gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she talked with him about all that was on her mind. ² Solomon ^[h]answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from him which he did not make clear to her. ³ So when the queen of Sheba saw the [depth of] Solomon’s wisdom, and the house which he had built, ⁴ and the food of his table, the [vast] seating order of his officials, the attendance and service of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and his ^[i]stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, she was breathless. ⁵ She said to the king, “The report which I heard in my own land regarding your [accomplishments and your] words and your wisdom was true, ⁶ but I did not believe the reports until I came and saw it with my own eyes. Behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told to me; you have surpassed the report that I heard. ⁷ Blessed and fortunate are your people, how blessed and fortunate are these servants of yours who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom! ⁸ Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on His throne as king for the Lord your God; because your God loved Israel, establishing them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.” ⁹ Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, a very large amount of spices (balsam oil) and precious stones; there was no such spice [anywhere] like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰ The servants of Huram and those of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, also brought almug trees and precious stones. ¹¹ From the almug timber the king made ^[j]stairways for the house of the Lord and for the king’s palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; none like that was seen before in the land of Judah.

¹² King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all [the things] she desired, whatever she asked, ^[k]besides a return for what she had brought to the king. So she returned to her own land with her servants.

Solomon’s Wealth and Power

¹³ Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents, ¹⁴ besides what the traders and merchants brought; and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon. ¹⁵ King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, using six hundred shekels of beaten gold on each large shield. ¹⁶ And he made three hundred [smaller] shields of beaten gold, using three hundred shekels of gold on each shield; and the king put them in the ^[l]house of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷ Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁸ There were six steps to the throne and a golden footstool attached to the throne, and arms on each side of the seat, with two lions standing beside the arms. ¹⁹ Also, twelve lions were standing there, one on each side of the six steps. Nothing like it had ever been made for any [other] kingdom. ²⁰ All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon. ²¹ For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks.

²² So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom. ²³ And all the kings of the earth were seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put into his heart. ²⁴ Each man brought his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.

²⁵ Now Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities or with the king at Jerusalem.^{(D) 26} He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt. ²⁷ The king made silver in Jerusalem as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as the ^[m]sycamore-fig trees that are in the ^[n]lowland. ²⁸ And they were importing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all [the other] countries.

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, from the first to the last, are they not written in the records of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat? ³⁰ Solomon reigned forty years in Jerusalem over all Israel.

Death of Solomon

³¹ And Solomon slept with his fathers [in death]; he was buried in the city of his father David. Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

Rehoboam’s Reign of Folly

10 Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. ² When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard about the new king (for he was in ^[o]Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), Jeroboam returned from Egypt.^{(E) 3} And the people sent messengers and summoned him. So when Jeroboam and all Israel came, they spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ “Your father [King Solomon] made our yoke hard (heavy, difficult); so now lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵ Rehoboam replied, “Come back to me again in three days.” So the people departed.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon [as advisers] while he was alive, asking, “What advice do you give me in answer to these people?” ⁷ They answered him, saying, “If you are kind to these people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” ⁸ But the king rejected the advice which the elders gave him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him [as advisers]. ⁹ He asked them, “What advice do you give to us regarding the answer to these people, who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?” ¹⁰ The young men who grew up with him told him, “Tell the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us’: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s ^[p]loins! ¹¹ Now my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, but I will add [more weight] to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions (extremely painful scourges).’”

¹² So on the third day Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam just as the king had directed, saying, “Return to me on the third day.” ¹³ The king answered them harshly, for King Rehoboam rejected the counsel of the elders. ¹⁴ He spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for the ^[q]turn of events was from God that the Lord might fulfill His word, which He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.^(F)

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king did not listen and pay attention to them, the people answered him,

So all Israel went to their tents. ¹⁷ But as for the Israelites who lived in Judah’s cities, Rehoboam ruled over them. ¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam ^[r]sent Hadoram, who was over the forced labor, and the Israelites stoned him and he died. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his [royal] chariot to escape to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ And Israel has rebelled against the house of David to this day.