Chronological

The Lord appears again to Solomon

9 Solomon had finished building the Lord's temple and the king's palace. He had built everything that he had wanted to build. ² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.^{[a] 3} The Lord said to Solomon,

‘I have heard your prayer and how you have asked me to help you. I have made this temple that you have built a special place for me. People will worship me there for ever. I will always be there to watch over it.

⁴ You must continue to serve me honestly and obey me, as your father David did. Do everything that I have commanded you to do. Obey my rules and my laws.

⁵ If you serve me truly, I will cause one of your descendants to rule over Israel as king for all time. That is what I promised to your father David when I said, “There will always be someone from your family to rule Israel as king.”^{[b] 6} But if you or your descendants turn away from me, I will punish your people. I will do that if you do not obey the laws and rules that I have given to you. I will do it if you choose to serve and to worship other gods. ⁷ Then I will remove the Israelite people from the land that I have given to them. I will turn away from this temple that I have made a special place for people to worship me. People from all the other nations will insult the Israelites and they will laugh at them. ⁸ This temple will became a heap of stones. Everyone who sees it will be very surprised. They will laugh about it! They will ask, “Why has the Lord destroyed this land and this temple?” ⁹ People will answer, “He has done it because they have turned away from the Lord their God. He brought their ancestors out of Egypt. But they have chosen to worship other gods and to serve them. That is why the Lord has caused this trouble to happen to them.” ’

Other things that Solomon did

¹⁰ Solomon was building the Lord's temple and the king's palace for 20 years. ¹¹ After this, he gave 20 towns in Galilee to Hiram, the king of Tyre. Solomon did this because Hiram had given him all that he needed for the work. Hiram had given him cedar wood, pine wood and gold. ¹² So Hiram left Tyre and he went to Galilee, to see the towns that Solomon had given to him. But Hiram was not happy with them. ¹³ He said to Solomon, ‘My friend, you have given me some useless towns!’ Hiram called that region ‘Kabul Land’. It still has that name today.^{[c] 14} Hiram had sent to King Solomon about 4,000 kilograms of gold.

¹⁵ Solomon made people work on the buildings for him. This is how he used them to build the Lord's temple, the king's palace, the Millo and the wall around Jerusalem. They also did work on the towns called Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. ¹⁶ Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked Gezer and he had taken it. He had destroyed it with fire. He killed the Canaanites who lived there.^[d] Then he gave it as a gift to his daughter, when she married Solomon. ¹⁷ So Solomon built Gezer again. He also built Lower Beth-Horon, ¹⁸ Baalath and Tadmor, which were towns in the wilderness of Judah. ¹⁹ Solomon also made strong the cities where he stored things and the cities where he kept his chariots and horses. He built everything that he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and everywhere in his kingdom.

²⁰ Solomon only made people who were not Israelites do the hard work for him. They were Canaanite people who still lived in the land after the Israelites took it for themselves. They were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ²¹ The Israelites had not been able to remove all of these people, so their descendants remained in the land. So Solomon made them do hard work as his slaves. They are still slaves of the Israelites today. ²² But Solomon did not make any of the Israelites do the hard work. Instead, they served him as his soldiers, government officers and army officers. Some of the soldiers drove chariots and some were leaders of the chariot drivers. ²³ There were also officers who had authority over the slaves who did the work. There were 550 officers who led the work.

²⁴ Solomon had built a palace for his wife, Pharaoh's daughter. When the palace was ready, she came up from the City of David. After that, Solomon built the Millo.

²⁵ Three times every year Solomon offered burnt offerings and friendship offerings as sacrifices to the Lord. He did this on the altar that he had built for the Lord. With these offerings, he also burned incense to worship the Lord. So the temple became the place to worship the Lord.

²⁶ King Solomon also built ships at Ezion-Geber. This place is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. ²⁷ Hiram had sailors who knew how to sail ships on the sea. He sent some of these men to work with Solomon's sailors. ²⁸ They sailed to Ophir and they brought back about 14 tons of gold. They gave it to King Solomon.

Solomon builds more towns

8 Solomon was building the Lord's temple and the king's palace for 20 years. ² After that, he built again the towns that King Hiram had given to him. He sent Israelites to live in them.

³ Then Solomon went to Hamath-Zobah and he took it for Israel. ⁴ He made the buildings in Tadmor strong again. That was a town in the wilderness. He did the same thing for the towns that he had built in Hamath region to store things. ⁵ He built again Higher Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon. He made those cities strong. He built walls around them with strong gates. ⁶ He also made Baalath strong, and all his cities where he stored things, as well as all the cities where he kept his chariots and horses. He built everything that he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and everywhere in his kingdom.

⁷ Solomon only made people who were not Israelites do the hard work for him. They were Canaanite people who still lived in the land after the Israelites took it for themselves. They were Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁸ The Israelites had not been able to destroy all of these people, so their descendants remained in the land. So Solomon made them do hard work as his slaves. They are still slaves of the Israelites today. ⁹ But Solomon did not cause any Israelites to do the hard work as slaves. Instead, they became his soldiers and army officers. Some of the soldiers drove chariots and some were leaders of the chariot drivers. ¹⁰ King Solomon had 250 Israelite officers who had authority over the workers.

Solomon gives a house to Pharaoh's daughter

¹¹ Solomon had built a palace for his wife, Pharaoh's daughter. When the palace was ready, he brought her up there from the City of David. He said, ‘My wife must not live in the palace of David, king of Israel. The Lord's Covenant Box has been there, so it is a holy place.’

The work of the priests and Levites

¹² Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar that he had built. The altar was outside the entrance of the temple. ¹³ He offered the sacrifices every day that Moses had told them to do. There were rules about sacrifices on Sabbath days, on festivals for each new moon and on the three special festivals each year. Those were the Festival of Flat Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Huts.^{[a] 14} Solomon gave jobs to each group of priests as his father David had commanded. He also gave the Levites their jobs to do each day. They led the music to worship God and they helped the priests with their work. He gave each group of guards a job to watch the gates of the temple. He told them all to do this in the way that God's servant David had commanded. ¹⁵ All the priests and the Levites were careful to do exactly what the king had commanded. That included the rooms where they stored valuable things.

¹⁶ Solomon's workers did all the jobs that he told them to do. They started on the day when they built the foundation of the Lord's temple. They continued to work until they had finished everything. In that way, work on the Lord's temple was complete.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion-Geber and to Elath. They were towns on the coast of the sea, in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ King Hiram had sailors who knew how to sail ships on the sea. He sent some of these men to work with Solomon's sailors. They sailed to Ophir and they brought back about 15 tons of gold. They gave it to King Solomon.