Solomon Asks for Wisdom at Gibeon

Now Solomon the son of David firmly established himself over his kingdom. For Adonai his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.

Now David had brought up the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it because he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.

Solomon answered God, “You have shown great lovingkindness to my father David and now You have made me king in his place.

Now, Adonai Elohim, let Your word to my father David be fulfilled for You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

Then Solomon sent word to Huram the king of Tyre saying, “Deal with me as you did with my father David when you sent him cedars to build a house to dwell in.

“So now, send me a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with the skilled men who are with me, whom my father David provided.

Then Huram continued, “Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth. He gave King David a wise son, endowed with insight and understanding, who will build a House for Adonai and a royal house for himself.

who is the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan and whose father was a man from Tyre—a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, in purple and blue, fine linen and crimson, and to engrave all kinds of engraving, and who can execute any design given to him. He will work with your skilled men and with the skilled men of my lord David your father.

Solomon counted all the foreign men in the land of Israel, like the census that his father David had taken, and 153,600 were found.

Solomon Builds the Temple in Jerusalem

Then Solomon began to build the House of Adonai in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah—where Adonai appeared to his father David—at the place that David prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

When all the work that Solomon undertook for the House of Adonai was finished, Solomon brought in the things David his father consecrated—the silver, gold and all the furnishings—and put them in the treasuries of the House of God.

Consecration of the Temple

Then Solomon gathered to Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the patriarchal leaders of Bnei-Yisrael, in order to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai from the city of David, which is Zion.

He said: “Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel, who with His hands has fulfilled what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying:

But I have chosen Jerusalem that My Name would abide there and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

“Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a House for the Name of Adonai, the God of Israel.

But Adonai said to David my father: ‘As for you wanting in your heart to build a House for My Name, you did well that this was in your heart.

“Now Adonai has confirmed His promise that He spoke. I have succeeded my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, just as Adonai promised, and I have built the House for the Name of Adonai, the God of Israel.

You have kept the promise You made to Your servant David, my father. Surely you spoke with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand—as it is today.

“Now therefore, Adonai, God of Israel, keep for Your servant David, my father, that which You have promised him saying: ‘For you will never be cut off, you will not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne—if only your sons pay attention to their way, to walk in My Torah as you have walked before Me.’

“Now therefore, Adonai God of Israel, let Your word, which You spoke to Your servant David, be confirmed.

Adonai Elohim, do not reject Your anointed one. Remember the loyalty of Your servant David.”

The kohanim stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the musical instruments of Adonai that King David had made for praising Adonai—“for His mercy endures forever”—whenever David offered praise by their hand. Opposite them were the kohanim who sounded trumpets while all Israel was standing.

On the 23 rd day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that Adonai had done for David, Solomon and Israel His people.

“As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing all that I have commanded you, keeping My statutes and My ordinances,

then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.’

Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the palace of King David of Israel, because the places where the Ark of Adonai has entered are holy.”

Following the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the kohanim for their avodah and the Levites for their duties—to praise and minister alongside the kohanim according to the daily assignment—and the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate, because this is what David the man of God had commanded.

Solomon Buried in David’s City

Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, the beginning and the end, are they not written in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Jedo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

Then Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David, and Rehoboam his son became king in his place.

When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king saying, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse! To your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!” So all Israel departed to their tents.

So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years, for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.

Rehoboam married Mahalat the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse.

Then Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. Then his son Abijah became king in his place.

Don’t you know that Adonai, God of Israel, has given kingship over Israel to David forever—to him and his sons by a covenant of salt?

Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master.

“So now, do you intend to oppose the kingdom of Adonai, which is in the hand of David’s descendants? Are you indeed a great multitude—and with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods?

Then Abijah slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place. During his days the land was untroubled for ten years.

He was buried in his own tomb, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David. They laid him in his resting place, which was filled with sweet spices and various blended perfumes and they made a very large fire for him.

Adonai was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baalim

Jehoram Slays His Brothers

Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. Jehoram his son became king in his place.

However, Adonai was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant He had made with David, and since He had spoken a word to give a lamp to him and his sons always.

Elijah’s Letter of Judgment

A letter from Elijah the prophet came to him saying: “Thus says Adonai, the God of your father David: Since you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah,

He was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years and he passed away, to no one’s regret. He was buried in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

and the entire congregation made a covenant with the king in the House of God. Then he said to them: “Behold, the king’s son! He must reign as Adonai promised concerning David’s sons.

And Jehoiada the kohen delivered to the officers of hundreds King David’s spears, shields and bucklers that were in the House of God.

Then Jehoiada placed the oversight of the House of Adonai under the authority of the Levitical kohanim, whom David had assigned over the House of Adonai to offer the burnt offerings of Adonai, as it is written in the Torah of Moses, accompanied by rejoicing and singing as ordered by David.

So he was buried in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good things in Israel and toward God and His House.

When they withdrew from him—for they left him very sick—his own servants plotted against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the kohen, and assassinated him on his bed. He died and was buried in the city of David—but not in the tombs of the kings.

Jotham slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David. Ahaz his son became king in his place.

Ahaz’s Sin in the Valley of Ben-hinnom

Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. But he did not do what was right in the eyes of Adonai as his father David had done,

He did right in the eyes of Adonai, just as his father David had done.

He stationed the Levites in the House of Adonai with cymbals, harps and lyres, according to the command of David, of Gad the king’s seer and of Nathan the prophet. For the command was by the authority of Adonai through His prophets.

So the Levites stood with David’s instruments and the kohanim with the trumpets.

Then Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of Adonai also began with the trumpets, together with the instruments of King David of Israel.

Moreover, King Hezekiah and the officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to Adonai with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped.

There was great joy in Jerusalem, for nothing like this had happened in Jerusalem since the time of Solomon son of David king of Israel.

Then he took courage and rebuilt the entire wall that had been broken down, raised up the towers, added another outer wall, fortified the Millo in the city of David, and made plenty of weapons and shields.

It was also Hezekiah who stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon and channeled them downward to the west side of the city of David. Hezekiah succeeded in all that he did.

So Hezekiah slept with his fathers and they buried him in the upper section of the tombs of the sons of David. All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death. His son Manasseh became king in his place.

Then he placed the carved image of the idol that he had made in the House of God—of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever.

Afterward he built an outer wall to the city of David west of Gihon in the valley, as far as the entrance to the Fish Gate, and encircling the Ophel; he also raised it up much higher. He stationed military officers in all the fortified cities of Judah.

He did right in the eyes of Adonai, and walked in the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek after the God of his father David. In the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the Asherah poles, and the carved and molten images.

He said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were consecrated to Adonai, “Put the holy Ark in the House which Solomon the son of King David of Israel built. Since it is no longer a burden on your shoulders now, serve Adonai your God and His people Israel.

Prepare youselves by your ancestral houses in your divisions, according to the writing of King David of Israel and according to the writing of his son Solomon.

The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were at their stations according to the commandment of David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun, the king’s seer. The gatekeepers were at every gate. They did not need to depart from their posts for their fellow Levites provided for them.