1 Kings 9:10–28

KING HIRAM’S TWENTY TOWNS

¹⁰At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord’s temple and the royal palace^b—¹¹King Hiram of Tyre^c having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold^d for his every wish^e—King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee. ¹²So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them. ¹³So he said, “What are these towns you’ve given me, my brother?” So he called them the Land of Cabul,^E as they are still called today.^{f 14}Now Hiram had sent the king nine thousand pounds^F of gold.^g

SOLOMON’S FORCED LABOR

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor^h that King Solomon had imposed to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces,ⁱ the wall of Jerusalem,^j and Hazor,^k Megiddo,^l and Gezer.^{m 16}Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He then burned it, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.^{n 17}Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,^{o 18}Baalath,^p Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah, ¹⁹all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities,^q the cavalry cities,^r and whatever Solomon desired to build^s in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

²⁰As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites—²¹their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely^t—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is still this way today.^{u 22}But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to slavery;^v they were soldiers, his servants, his commanders, his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. ²³These were the deputies^w who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who supervised the people doing the work.^x

SOLOMON’S OTHER ACTIVITIES

²⁴Pharaoh’s daughter moved from the city of David^y to the house that Solomon had built for her;^z he then built the terraces.^aa

²⁵Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, and he burned incense with them in the Lord’s presence.^ab So he completed the temple.^ac

²⁶King Solomon put together a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber,^ad which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. ²⁷With the fleet, Hiram sent his servants, experienced seamen, along with Solomon’s servants. ²⁸They went to Ophir^ae and acquired gold there—sixteen tons^A—and delivered it to Solomon.^af