Historical
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.
The Queen of Sheba visits Solomon
9 The Queen of Sheba heard news that Solomon was a great king. So she came to ask Solomon some difficult questions to see how wise he was. She arrived at Jerusalem with a big group of servants. She had many camels that carried spices. They also carried a lot of gold and valuable jewels. When she came to Solomon, she talked to him about everything that was in her mind. 2 Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing that was too difficult for him to explain to her. 3 The Queen of Sheba saw that Solomon was very wise.[b] She saw the palace that he had built. 4 She saw all the food that he ate in his palace. She saw all his servants and officers and their beautiful clothes. She saw the servants who prepared his food and wine. She saw the burnt offerings that he offered in the Lord's temple. All these things caused her to hold her breath in surprise.
5 She said to the king, ‘In my own country I heard news about your wisdom and about all the things that you had done. Everything that I heard was true! 6 But I did not believe those things until I came here. Now I have seen everything with my own eyes, and it is true! Really, they told me less than half of what was true! You are even wiser than the report that people told me. 7 God has blessed your people and your officers! They are always with you, and they can listen to your wise words. 8 So we should praise the Lord your God! He is happy with you and he has chosen you to rule Israel on his behalf. Your God will continue to love Israel for ever, and he will always make them strong. So he has made you king to rule them in a fair and honest way.’
9 The Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon more than four tons of gold, a lot of spices and many valuable jewels. Nobody has ever brought such a great number of spices as she gave to the king.
10 King Hiram's men had brought gold from Ophir. King Solomon's men had helped them to do this. They also brought very good wood, and valuable jewels. 11 The king used the wood to make steps for the Lord's temple and for the king's palace. He also used it to make harps and lyres for the musicians. Nobody had ever seen things like those in Judah.
12 King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba everything that she wanted. He gave more things to her than she had brought to him. Then she left with all her servants and she returned to her own country.
Solomon's riches
13 Solomon received 25 tons of gold each year. 14 He also received money from traders and from people who travelled to buy things. The kings of Arabia and the rulers of each region in Israel also brought gold and silver to Solomon.
15 King Solomon's workers used gold to make 200 large shields. They hit the gold with hammers to make it flat. They used about four kilograms of gold to cover each shield. 16 They also made 300 small shields in the same way. They used about 2 kilograms of gold to cover each shield. He put these shields in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.[c]
17 The king used ivory to make a large throne. He covered it with pure gold. 18 There were six steps up to the throne. They fixed a gold box to the throne for the king to put his feet on. On both sides of the seat there were places to put his arms. An image of a lion stood on each side of the throne. 19 There were 12 more images of lions on the six steps. There was one lion at each end of every step. There was no throne like it in any other kingdom. 20 They used gold to make all King Solomon's cups that he drank from. In the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon, all the dishes and other things were made with gold. They used pure gold. They did not make anything with silver. In Solomon's time, people did not think that silver was very valuable. 21 The king had many large ships that King Hiram's men could sail across the seas.[d] Every three years they returned to Solomon with their loads. They brought to him gold, silver and ivory. They also brought apes and monkeys.[e]
22 King Solomon was richer and wiser than any other king in the world. 23 The kings of every nation in the world wanted to talk to Solomon. They wanted to listen to the wisdom that God had given to him. 24 Every year, people who came to visit Solomon brought him gifts. They brought things that were made from silver and gold, as well as clothes, weapons, spices, horses and mules.
25 Solomon had places to keep 4,000 horses that pulled his chariots. He also had 12,000 horses. He kept them in the cities that he had chosen for this and also in Jerusalem where he lived. 26 He ruled over all the kings around Israel, from the Euphrates river as far as the Philistines' country and the border of Egypt. 27 While Solomon ruled as king, there was as much silver in Jerusalem as stones! There was as much wood from cedar trees as there were fig trees that grew in the low hills in the west. 28 People brought horses to Solomon from Egypt and from all the other countries.
Solomon dies
29 People wrote down everything else that Solomon did while he ruled as king, from the beginning to the end. The prophet Nathan wrote them down in his book. The prophet Ahijah who came from Shiloh also wrote them down. The prophet Iddo also wrote about them in his book of the visions that he saw about Nebat's son Jeroboam. 30 Solomon ruled over all Israel for 40 years while he lived in Jerusalem. 31 Then he died. They buried him with his ancestors, in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam became king after him.
The Israelites ask Rehoboam to make their work easier
10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all the Israelites had gone there to make him king.[f] 2 At this time, Nebat's son Jeroboam was in Egypt. He had been living there since he ran away from King Solomon. When he heard the news about Rehoboam, he returned from Egypt. 3 The Israelites sent a message to Jeroboam to meet with them. Then Jeroboam and all the Israelites went to speak to Rehoboam. They said to him, 4 ‘Your father caused us to work too hard. Please make the work easier for us. If you do that, we will serve you as our king.’ 5 Rehoboam answered them, ‘Go away for three days. Then come back to me.’ So the people went away.
6 Then King Rehoboam went to talk to the older advisors who had served his father Solomon. He asked them, ‘What answer should I give to these people?’
7 They replied, ‘If you agree to be kind to these people and help them, they will always serve you as their king. So do what they are asking you to do.’
8 But Rehoboam did not agree with their advice. Instead he talked to some younger men. They had been his friends since they were young and now they were his advisors. 9 He asked them, ‘What do you think that I should say to these people? They want me to make their work easier.’
10 Rehoboam's young advisors said, ‘The people said to you, “Your father made us work too hard. Please make our work easier.” You should tell them, “Even my little finger is thicker than my father's whole body! 11 My father made you work hard. I will make you work even harder! My father punished you with little whips. I will punish you with whips that bite your skin!” ’
Rehoboam refuses to do what the people want
12 Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam after three days. That was because the king had said, ‘Return to me in three days.’
13 King Rehoboam spoke cruel words to the people. He did not agree to say what the older men had told him to say. 14 Instead, he did what the young men had suggested. He said to the people, ‘My father gave you work that was too hard for you. I will make it even worse! My father punished you with little whips. I will punish you with whips that bite!’
15 So the king did not agree to do what the people wanted him to do. It was God who caused this to happen. He had already given his message about this to Nebat's son Jeroboam. The prophet Ahijah who came from Shiloh had spoken the Lord's message to Jeroboam.[g]
Israel and Judah become separate kingdoms
16 All the Israelites realized that the king refused to listen to them. So they said to the king,
‘We can no longer serve the family of Jesse's son, David!
Israelites, go back to your homes!
You descendant of David, take care of your own family!’
So the Israelites went to their homes. 17 But Rehoboam continued to rule over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.[h]
18 King Rehoboam sent a man called Adoniram to talk to the Israelite people. Adoniram had authority over the men who had to work for Rehoboam. But the Israelites threw stones at Adoniram and they killed him.[i] So King Rehoboam quickly got into his chariot and he escaped to Jerusalem.
19 Since that time, the tribes in the north of Israel have not accepted the authority of King David's descendants.
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