1 Kings 9:15-28

Lexham English Bible

Solomon’s Accomplishments

¹⁵ This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the house of Yahweh and his house, the Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶ Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had gone up and captured Gezer and burnt it with fire. He had also killed the Canaanites who were living in the city and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, the wife of Solomon. ¹⁷ Solomon rebuilt Gezer and Lower Beth-Horon, ¹⁸ as well as Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness in the land; ¹⁹ and he also built all of the storage cities which were Solomon’s, the cities for the chariots, the cities for the cavalry, and all of Solomon’s desire that he wanted^[a] to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion.

²⁰ All of the people who were remaining from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites who were not of the Israelites,^{[b] 21} their children who remained after them in the land, whom the Israelites^[c] were not able to completely destroy, Solomon conscripted them for forced labor, until this very day. ²² But from the Israelites^[d] Solomon did not make a slave, but they were the men of war, his officers, his commanders, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. ²³ These were the commanders of the overseers who were over the work for Solomon, five hundred and fifty, ruling over the people doing the work.

²⁴ As soon as the daughter of Pharaoh went up from the city of David to her house which he^[e] built for her, then he built the Millo.

²⁵ Solomon sacrificed three times a year: burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar that he had built to Yahweh, and he offered incense with it before Yahweh; and so he completed the house.

²⁶ King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber which is near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea^[f] in the land of Edom. ²⁷ Hiram sent his servants with the fleet of ships, sailors^[g] who knew the sea, with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸ They went to Ophir and imported from there four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and they brought it to King Solomon.