2 Chronicles 1-9

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

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 4

¹ Then he made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.^{(AA) 2 (AB)}He also made the molten sea. It was made with a circular rim, and measured ten cubits across, five in height, and thirty in circumference. ³ Under the brim a ring of figures of oxen^[h] encircled it for ten cubits, all the way around the compass of the sea; there were two rows of oxen cast in one mold with the sea. ⁴ This rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with their haunches all toward the center; upon them was set the sea. ⁵ It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim resembled that of a cup, being lily-shaped. It had a capacity of three thousand baths.^[i]

⁶ Then he made ten basins for washing, placing five of them to the right and five to the left. In these the victims for the burnt offerings were washed; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.^(AC)

⁷ He made the menorahs of gold, ten of them as was prescribed, and placed them in the nave, five to the right and five to the left.^{(AD) 8} He made ten tables and had them set in the nave, five to the right and five to the left; and he made a hundred golden bowls.^{(AE) 9} He made the court of the priests and the great courtyard^(AF) and the gates of the courtyard; the gates he covered with bronze. ¹⁰ The sea he placed off to the southeast from the south side of the house.^(AG)

^11 (AH)When Huram had made the pots, shovels, and bowls, he finished all his work for King Solomon in the house of God: ¹² two columns; two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; and two pieces of netting covering the two nodes for the capitals on top of the columns; ¹³ four hundred pomegranates in double rows on both pieces of netting that covered the two nodes of the capitals on top of the columns. ¹⁴ He made the stands, and the basins on the stands; ¹⁵ one sea, and the twelve oxen under it; ¹⁶ pots, shovels, forks, and all the articles Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord; they were of burnished bronze. ¹⁷ The king had them cast in the neighborhood of the Jordan, between Succoth and Zeredah, in thick clay molds. ¹⁸ Solomon made all these vessels, so many in number that the weight of the bronze could not be determined.

¹⁹ Solomon made all the articles that were for the house of God: the golden altar, the tables on which the showbread lay, ²⁰ the menorahs and their lamps of pure gold which were to burn as prescribed before the inner sanctuary, ²¹ flowers, lamps, and gold tongs (this was of purest gold), ²² snuffers, bowls, cups, and firepans of pure gold. As for the entrance to the house, its inner doors to the holy of holies, as well as the doors to the nave of the temple, were of gold.

Chapter 5

Dedication of the Temple. ^1 (AI)When all the work undertaken by Solomon for the house of the Lord was completed, he brought in the votive offerings of David his father, putting the silver, the gold, and other articles in the treasuries of the house of God. ² Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the princes in the ancestral houses of the Israelites, to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the City of David, which is Zion. ³ All the people of Israel assembled before the king during the festival of the seventh month.^{[j] 4 (AJ)}When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites^[k] took up the ark; ⁵ and they brought up the ark and the tent of meeting with all the sacred vessels that were in the tent. The levitical priests brought them up.

⁶ King Solomon and the entire community of Israel, gathered for the occasion before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen too many to number or count. ⁷ The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place: the inner sanctuary of the house, the holy of holies, beneath the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ The cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the ark, covering the ark and its poles from above. ⁹ The poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary. (They cannot be seen from outside, but they remain there to this day.)^{[l] 10} There was nothing in the ark but the two tablets which Moses had put there at Horeb when the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they went forth from Egypt.

¹¹ When the priests left the holy place (all the priests who were present had purified themselves regardless of the rotation of their various divisions), ¹² the Levites who were singers, all who belonged to Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and brothers, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets.

¹³ When the trumpeters and singers were heard as a single voice praising and giving thanks to the Lord, and when they raised the sound of the trumpets, cymbals, and other musical instruments to “Praise the Lord, who is so good, whose love endures forever,” the cloud filled the house of the Lord.^{(AK) 14} The priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.^(AL)

Chapter 6

^1 (AM)Then Solomon said:

^3 (AN)The king turned and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood. ⁴ He said: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his own mouth spoke a promise to David my father and by his hand fulfilled it, saying: ⁵ Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city out of any tribe of Israel for the building of a house, that my name might be there; nor have I chosen any man to be ruler of my people Israel; ⁶ but now I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name may be there, and I have chosen David^[m] to rule my people Israel. ⁷ When David my father wished to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, ⁸ the Lord said to him: In wishing to build a house for my name, you did well. ⁹ But it is not you who will build the house, but your son, who comes from your loins: he shall build the house for my name.

¹⁰ “Now the Lord has fulfilled the word he spoke. I have succeeded David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord has said, and I have built this house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹¹ I have placed there the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the Israelites.”

Solomon’s Prayer. ^12 (AO)Then he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and stretched forth his hands. ^13 [n]Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, which he had placed in the middle of the courtyard. Having ascended it, Solomon knelt in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and stretched forth his hands toward heaven. ¹⁴ He said: “Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth; you keep the covenant and love toward your servants who walk before you with their whole heart, ¹⁵ the covenant that you kept toward your servant, David my father. That which you promised him, your mouth has spoken and your hand has fulfilled this very day. ¹⁶ And now, Lord, God of Israel, keep toward your servant, David my father, what you promised: There shall never be wanting someone from your line to sit before me on the throne of Israel, provided that your descendants keep to their way, walking by my law, as you have. ¹⁷ Now, Lord, God of Israel, may the words which you spoke to David your servant be confirmed.

¹⁸ “Is God indeed to dwell with human beings on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built! ¹⁹ Regard kindly the prayer and petition of your servant, Lord, my God, and listen to the cry of supplication which I, your servant, utter before you. ²⁰ May your eyes be open day and night toward this house, the place where you have decreed your name shall be; listen to the prayer your servant makes toward this place. ²¹ Listen to the petition of your servant and of your people Israel which they offer toward this place. Listen, from the place of your enthronement, heaven, and listen and forgive.

²² “If someone sins against a neighbor and is required to take an oath sanctioned by a curse, and comes and takes the oath before your altar in this house, ²³ listen in heaven: act and judge your servants. Condemn the wicked, requiting their ways; acquit the just, rewarding their justice. ²⁴ When your people Israel are defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and then they turn, praise your name, pray to you, and entreat you in this house, ²⁵ listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave them and their ancestors. ²⁶ When the heavens are closed so that there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, but they pray toward this place and praise your name, and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, ²⁷ listen in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. (For you teach them the good way in which they should walk.) Give rain upon this land of yours which you have given to your people as their heritage.

²⁸ “If there is famine in the land or pestilence; or if blight comes, or mildew, or locusts swarm, or caterpillars; when their enemies besiege them at any of their gates; whatever plague or sickness there may be; ²⁹ whatever prayer of petition any may make, any of your people Israel, who know affliction and pain and stretch out their hands toward this house, ³⁰ listen from heaven, the place of your enthronement, and forgive. Render to each and all according to their ways, you who know every heart; for it is you alone who know the heart of every human being. ³¹ So may they revere you and walk in your ways as long as they live on the land you gave our ancestors.

³² “To the foreigners, likewise, who are not of your people Israel, but who come from a distant land for the sake of your great name, your mighty hand and outstretched arm, and come in prayer to this house, ³³ listen from heaven, the place of your enthronement. Do all that the foreigner asks of you, that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, may revere you as do your people Israel, and may know that your name has been invoked upon this house that I have built.

³⁴ “When your people go out to war against their enemies, by whatever way you send them, and they pray to you toward the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name, ³⁵ listen from heaven to their prayer and petition, and uphold their cause. ³⁶ When they sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin), and in your anger against them you deliver them to an enemy, so that their captors carry them off to another land, far or near, ³⁷ and they have a change of heart in the land of their captivity and they turn and entreat you in the land of their captors and say, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have been wicked,’ ³⁸ if with all their heart and soul they turn back to you in the land of those who took them captive, and pray toward their land which you gave their ancestors, the city you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name, ³⁹ listen from heaven, the place of your enthronement, to their prayer and petitions, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you. ⁴⁰ Now, my God, may your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to the prayer of this place. ⁴¹ And now:

Chapter 7

^1 (AQ)When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. ² But the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.^{(AR) 3} All the Israelites looked on while the fire came down and the glory of the Lord was upon the house, and they fell down upon the pavement with their faces to the earth and worshiped, praising the Lord, “who is so good, whose love endures forever.” ⁴ The king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord.^{(AS) 5} King Solomon offered as sacrifice twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep.^(AT)

End of the Dedication. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶ The priests were standing at their stations, as were the Levites, with the musical instruments of the Lord which King David had made to give thanks to the Lord, “whose love endures forever,” when David offered praise through them. The priests opposite them blew the trumpets and all Israel stood.^(AU)

⁷ Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the court facing the house of the Lord; he offered there the burnt offerings and the fat of the communion offerings, since the bronze altar which Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat.^(AV)

⁸ On this occasion Solomon and with him all Israel, a great assembly from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt, celebrated the festival for seven days.^{(AW) 9 (AX)}On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the feast^[o] for seven days. ¹⁰ On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he dismissed the people to their tents, rejoicing and glad of heart because of all the blessings the Lord had given to David, to Solomon, and to his people Israel. ^11 (AY)Solomon finished building the house of the Lord, the house of the king, and everything else he wanted to do in regard to the house of the Lord and his own house.

God’s Promise to Solomon. ¹² The Lord appeared to Solomon during the night and said to him: I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for my house of sacrifice. ¹³ If I close heaven so that there is no rain, if I command the locust to devour the land, if I send pestilence among my people, ¹⁴ if then my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now, therefore, my eyes shall be open and my ears attentive to the prayer of this place; ¹⁶ now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart shall be there always.

¹⁷ As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, doing all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and ordinances, ¹⁸ I will establish the throne of your kingship as I covenanted with David your father when I said, There shall never be wanting someone from your line as ruler in Israel. ¹⁹ But if ever you turn away and forsake my commandments and statutes which I set before you, and proceed to serve other gods, and bow down to them, ²⁰ I will uproot the people from the land I gave and repudiate the house I have consecrated for my name. I will make it a proverb and a byword among all nations. ²¹ And this house which is so exalted—every passerby shall be horrified and ask: “Why has the Lord done such things to this land and to this house?” ²² And the answer will come: “Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they embraced other gods, bowing down to them and serving them. That is why he has brought upon them all this evil.”

Chapter 8

Public Works. ^1 (AZ)After the twenty years during which Solomon built the house of the Lord and his own house, ² he built up the cities which Huram had given him,^[p] and settled Israelites there. ³ Then Solomon went to Hamath of Zoba and conquered it. ⁴ He built Tadmor^[q] in the wilderness and all the supply cities, which he built in Hamath. ^5 (BA)He built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars; ⁶ also Baalath, all the supply cities belonging to Solomon, and all the cities for the chariots, the cities for horses, and whatever else Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in the entire land under his dominion. ⁷ All the people who were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who were not Israelites— ⁸ those of their descendants who were left in the land and whom the Israelites had not destroyed—Solomon conscripted as forced laborers, as they are to this day. ⁹ But Solomon made none of the Israelites forced laborers for his works, for they were his fighting force, commanders, adjutants, chariot officers, and cavalry. ¹⁰ They were also King Solomon’s two hundred and fifty overseers who directed the people.

Solomon’s Piety. ¹¹ Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “No wife of mine shall dwell in the house of David, king of Israel, for the places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”

¹² In those times Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord upon the altar of the Lord which he had built in front of the porch, ¹³ as was required to be done day by day according to the command of Moses, especially on the sabbaths, at the new moons, and on the fixed festivals three times a year: on the feast of the Unleavened Bread, the feast of Weeks, and the feast of Booths.^(BB)

¹⁴ And according to the ordinance of David his father he appointed the various divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites according to their functions of praise and attendance upon the priests, as the daily duty required. The gatekeepers by their divisions stood guard at each gate, since such was the command of David, the man of God.^{(BC) 15} There was no deviation from the king’s command in whatever related to the priests and Levites or the treasuries. ¹⁶ All of Solomon’s work was carried out successfully from the day the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid until its completion. The house of the Lord was finished.

Glories of the Court. ¹⁷ In those times Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Elath on the seashore of the land of Edom.^{(BD) 18} Huram had his servants send him ships and his own servants, expert seamen; they went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, and obtained there four hundred and fifty talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.^(BE)

Chapter 9

The Queen of Sheba. ^1 (BF)The queen of Sheba, having heard a report of Solomon’s fame, came to Jerusalem to test him with subtle questions, accompanied by a very numerous retinue and by camels bearing spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke to him about everything that she had on her mind. ² Solomon explained to her everything she asked about, and there was nothing so obscure that Solomon could not explain it to her.^(BG)

^3 (BH)When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon’s great wisdom, the house he had built, ⁴ the food at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendance and dress of his waiters, his cupbearers and their dress, and the burnt offerings he sacrificed in the house of the Lord, it took her breath away. ⁵ “The report I heard in my country about your deeds and your wisdom is true,” she told the king. ⁶ “I did not believe the report until I came and saw with my own eyes that not even the half of your great wisdom had been told me. You have surpassed the report I heard. ⁷ Happy your servants, happy these ministers of yours, who stand before you always and listen to your wisdom. ⁸ Blessed be the Lord, your God, who was pleased to set you on his throne as king for the Lord, your God. In the love your God has for Israel, to establish them forever, he has made you king over them to carry out judgment and justice.” ⁹ Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰ The servants of Huram and of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir also brought cabinet wood and precious stones. ¹¹ With the cabinet wood the king made stairs for the house of the Lord and the house of the king, and harps and lyres for the chanters. The like of these had not been seen before in the land of Judah.^(BI)

¹² King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she desired and asked for, more than she had brought to the king. Then she returned with her servants to her own country.^(BJ)

^13 (BK)The gold that came to Solomon in one year weighed six hundred and sixty-six gold talents, ¹⁴ in addition to what came from the tolls on travelers and what the merchants brought. All the kings of Arabia also, and the governors of the country, brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵ King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold (six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield) ¹⁶ and three hundred bucklers of beaten gold (three hundred shekels of gold went into each buckler); and the king put them in the house of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷ The king made a large ivory throne, and overlaid it with fine gold. ¹⁸ The throne had six steps; a footstool of gold was fastened to the throne, and there was an arm on each side of the seat, with two lions standing next to the arms, ¹⁹ and twelve other lions standing there on the steps, two to a step. Nothing like this was made in any other kingdom. ²⁰ All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the utensils in the house of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, for in Solomon’s time silver was reckoned as nothing. ²¹ For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish ships would come with a cargo of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

Solomon’s Renown. ²² Thus King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

²³ All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon, to hear the wisdom God had put into his heart. ²⁴ They all brought their tribute: vessels of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules—what was due each year. ²⁵ Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses, chariots, and twelve thousand horses; these he allocated among the chariot cities and to the king’s service in Jerusalem. ²⁶ He was ruler over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines and down to the border of Egypt. ²⁷ The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as numerous as the sycamores of the Shephelah. ^28 [r]Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from all the lands.

The Death of Solomon. ^29 (BL)The remainder of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are recorded in the acts of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam, son of Nebat. ³⁰ Solomon was king in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. ³¹ Solomon rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David, his father, and Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.