2 Chronicles 7-9

21st Century King James Version

7 Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

² And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’S house.

³ And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever.”

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord.

⁵ And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep; so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

⁶ And the priests attended to their offices. The Levites also, with instruments of music of the Lord which David the king had made to praise the Lord (because His mercy endureth for ever), when David offered praise by their ministry; and the priests ounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.

⁷ Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord; for there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings and the meat offerings and the fat.

⁸ Also at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.

⁹ And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days.

¹⁰ And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had shown unto David and to Solomon and to Israel His people.

¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house; and all that came into Solomon’s heart to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house, he prosperously effected.

¹² And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said unto him: “I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself for a house of sacrifice.

¹³ If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send pestilence among My people,

¹⁴ if My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

¹⁵ Now Mine eyes shall be open and Mine ears attentive unto the prayer that is made in this place.

¹⁶ For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there for ever; and Mine eyes and Mine heart shall be there perpetually.

¹⁷ And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before Me as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe My statutes and My judgments,

¹⁸ then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, ‘There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.’

¹⁹ “But if ye turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods and worship them,

²⁰ then will I pluck them up by the roots out of My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name will I cast out of My sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.

²¹ And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one who passeth by it, so that he shall say, ‘Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and unto this house?’

²² And it shall be answered, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore hath He brought all this evil upon them.’”

8 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house,

² that the cities which Hiram had restored to Solomon, Solomon built them up and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

³ And Solomon went to Hamathzobah, and prevailed against it.

⁴ And he built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storecities which he built in Hamath.

⁵ Also he built Bethhoron the Upper and Bethhoron the Nether, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars,

⁶ and Baalath, and all the storecities that Solomon had, and all the cities for the chariots and the cities for the horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and throughout all the land of his dominion.

⁷ As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel

⁸ (of their children, who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel consumed not), these Solomon made to pay tribute until this day.

⁹ But of the children of Israel Solomon made no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and captains of his chariots and horsemen.

¹⁰ And these were the chief of King Solomon’s officers, even two hundred and fifty, who bore rule over the people.

¹¹ And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the City of David unto the house that he had built for her; for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy unto which the ark of the Lord hath come.”

¹² Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch,

¹³ according to a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses on the Sabbaths and on the new moons and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year: on the Feast of Unleavened Bread and on the Feast of Weeks and on the Feast of Tabernacles.

¹⁴ And he appointed, according to the order of David his father, the courses of the priests for their service, and the Levites to their charges to praise and minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the gatekeepers also by their courses at every gate, for so had David the man of God commanded.

¹⁵ And they departed not from the commandment of the king unto the priests and Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasurers.

¹⁶ Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was perfected.

¹⁷ Then went Solomon to Eziongeber and to Eloth at the seaside, in the land of Edom.

¹⁸ And Hiram sent him ships by the hands of his servants, and servants who had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took from thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.

9 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with hard questions, having a very great company, and camels that bore spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones. And when she had come to Solomon, she communed with him about all that was in her heart.

² And Solomon told her all her questions, and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not.

³ And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built,

⁴ and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel, his cupbearers also and their apparel, and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.

⁵ And she said to the king, “It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom.

⁶ However I believed not their words until I came and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me, for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.

⁷ Happy are thy men and happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom.

⁸ Blessed be the Lord thy God, who delighted in thee to set thee on His throne to be king for the Lord thy God. Because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore He made thee king over them to do judgment and justice.”

⁹ And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and spices in great abundance and precious stones; neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.

¹⁰ And the servants also of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum trees and precious stones.

¹¹ And the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the Lord and to the king’s palace, and harps and psalteries for singers; and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah.

¹² And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, besides that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned and went away to her own land, she and her servants.

¹³ Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and threescore and six talents of gold,

¹⁴ besides that which traders and merchants brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵ And King Solomon made two hundred bucklers of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of beaten gold went into one buckler.

¹⁶ And three hundred shields made he of beaten gold: three hundred shekels of gold went into one shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷ Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

¹⁸ And there were six steps to the throne with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne, and stays on each side of the sitting place, and two lions standing by the stays;

¹⁹ and twelve lions stood there on one side and on the other upon the six steps. There was not the like made in any kingdom.

²⁰ And all the drinking vessels of King Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver. (It was of no account in the days of Solomon.)

²¹ For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram: once every three years came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

²² And King Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

²³ And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom that God had put in his heart.

²⁴ And they brought every man his present: vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, armor, and spices, horses, and mules, a set rate year by year.

²⁵ And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he positioned in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.

²⁶ And he reigned over all the kings from the river even unto the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt.

²⁷ And the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycamore trees that are in the low plains in abundance.

²⁸ And they brought unto Solomon horses out of Egypt and out of all lands.

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

³⁰ And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.

³¹ And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the City of David his father; and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.