So they sought for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

As for you, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.

as surely as I swore to you by Adonai, the God of Israel, saying that your son Solomon will be king after me and will sit on my throne in my place. Thus I will surely fulfill it this day!”

There let Zadok the kohen and Nathan the prophet anoint him as king over Israel, blow the shofar and say: ‘Long live King Solomon!’

Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne. For he shall be king in my place, as I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah.”

Furthermore the king said, ‘Blessed be Adonai, God of Israel, who this day has given one to sit on my throne, while my eyes are seeing it.’”

so that Adonai may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying: ‘If your children watch their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

“Moreover, you also know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, whom he killed, shedding the blood of war in peacetime, and putting the blood of war on his waistband and on his sandals on his feet.

The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years—seven years he reigned in Hebron and 33 years he reigned in Jerusalem.

Then he said, “You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel looked to me to be the king. However, the kingship has turned about and become my brother’s—for it was his from Adonai.

Thus Adonai will return his blood on his own head, because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he—Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah—and killed them with the sword, without my father David’s knowledge.

When all Israel heard of the verdict that the king had given, they were in awe of the king. For they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

Solomon’s Official Staff

Now King Solomon reigned over all Israel,

Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household; each had to make provision for a month in the year.

Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in abundance, eating and drinking and rejoicing.

So Judah and Israel lived securely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

King Solomon also imposed forced laborers from all Israel—the levy was 30,000 men.

Building the Temple

Now it came to pass, 480 years after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv (which is the second month), that he began to build Adonai’s House.

I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”

Dedicating the Temple

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel—all the heads of the tribes and the ancestral chieftains of the children of Israel—to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring the ark of the covenant of Adonai up from the city of David, which is Zion.

All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the Feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

Then all the elders of Israel came and the kohanim brought up the ark.

Now King Solomon—and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled to him—were with him before the ark sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be numbered or counted.

Nothing was in the ark except the two tables of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, when Adonai cut a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

Then the king turned his face about and blessed the whole congregation of Israel while the whole congregation of Israel was standing.