2 Chronicles 7–9

THE DEDICATION CEREMONIES

7When Solomon finished praying,ⁱ fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices,^j and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. ²The priests were not able to enter the Lord’s temple because the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord. ³All the Israelites were watching when the fire descended and the glory of the Lord came on the temple. They bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and praised the Lord:

For he is good,

for his faithful love endures forever.^a

⁴The king and all the people were offering sacrifices in the Lord’s presence.^{b 5}King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep and goats. In this manner the king and all the people dedicated God’s temple. ⁶The priests and the Levites were standing at their stations. The Levites had the musical instruments of the Lord, which King David had made to give thanks to the Lord—“for his faithful love endures forever”—when he offered praise with them.^c Across from the Levites, the priests were blowing trumpets, and all the people were standing. ⁷Since the bronze altar that Solomon had made^d could not accommodate the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat of the fellowship offerings, Solomon first consecrated the middle of the courtyard^e that was in front of the Lord’s temple and then offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings there.^f

⁸So Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly, from the entrance to Hamath^A to the Brook of Egypt—observed the festival at that time for seven days. ⁹On the eighth day^B they held a solemn assembly,^g for the dedication of the altar lasted seven days and the festival seven days. ¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people home,^C rejoicing and with happy hearts for the goodness the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for his people Israel.

¹¹So Solomon finished the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. Everything that had entered Solomon’s heart to do for the Lord’s temple and for his own palace succeeded.^h

THE LORD’S RESPONSE

¹²Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him:

I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple of sacrifice.^{i 13}If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people,^{j 14}and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.^{k 15}My eyes will now be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place.^{l 16}And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.^m

¹⁷As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances, ¹⁸I will establish your royal throne, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man ruling in Israel.ⁿ

¹⁹However, if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,^{o 20}then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for my name I will banish from my presence;^p I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.^{q 21}As for this temple, which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will say,^r “Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?” ²²Then they will say, Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They clung to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. “Because of this, he brought all this ruin on them.”

SOLOMON’S LATER BUILDING PROJECTS

8At the end of twenty years^s during which Solomon had built the Lord’s temple and his own palace—²Solomon had rebuilt the cities Hiram^A gave him and settled Israelites there—³Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and seized it. ⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness along with all the storage cities that he built in Hamath. ⁵He built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon^t—fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars^a—⁶Baalath, all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, all the chariot cities, the cavalry cities, and everything Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

⁷As for all the peoples who remained of the Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not from Israel^b—⁸their descendants who remained in the land after them, those the Israelites had not completely destroyed—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way today.^{c 9}But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to be slaves for his work; they were soldiers, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. ¹⁰These were King Solomon’s deputies: 250 who supervised the people.

¹¹Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh from the city of David to the house he had built for her,^d for he said, “My wife must not live in the house^B of King David of Israel because the places the ark of the Lord has come into are holy.”

PUBLIC WORSHIP ESTABLISHED AT THE TEMPLE

¹²At that time^e Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the Lord’s altar he had made in front of the portico.^{f 13}He followed the daily requirement^g for offerings according to the commandment of Moses^h for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Shelters.^{i 14}According to the ordinances of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests over their service,^j of the Levites over their responsibilities to offer praise and to minister before the priests following the daily requirement,^k and of the gatekeepers by their divisions with respect to each temple gate,^l for this had been the command of David, the man of God.^{m 15}They did not turn aside from the king’s command regarding the priests and the Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasuries.^{n 16}All of Solomon’s work was carried out from the day the foundation was laid for the Lord’s temple until it was finished. So the Lord’s temple was completed.

SOLOMON’S FLEET

¹⁷At that time^o Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth^p on the seashore in the land of Edom. ¹⁸So Hiram^A sent ships to him by his servants along with crews of experienced seamen. They went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, took from there seventeen tons^B of gold, and delivered it to King Solomon.^q

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

9The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame,^r so she came to test Solomon with difficult questions at Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels bearing spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke with him about everything that was on her mind. ²So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for Solomon to explain to her. ³When the queen of Sheba observed Solomon’s wisdom, the palace he had built, ⁴the food at his table, his servants’ residence, his attendants’ service and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and the burnt offerings he offered at the Lord’s temple, it took her breath away.

⁵She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true. ⁶But I didn’t believe their reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, I was not even told half of your great wisdom! You far exceed the report I heard. ⁷How happy are your men.^s How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom. ⁸Blessed be the Lord your God! He delighted in you and put you on his throne as king for the Lord your God.^t Because your God loved Israel enough to establish them forever, he has set you over them as king to carry out justice and righteousness.”^u

⁹Then she gave the king four and a half tons^D of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There never were such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. ¹⁰In addition, Hiram’s servants and Solomon’s servants who brought gold from Ophir^v also brought algum wood and precious stones. ¹¹The king made the algum wood into walkways for the Lord’s temple and for the king’s palace and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah.

¹²King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire, whatever she asked—far more than she had brought the king. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.

SOLOMON’S WEALTH

¹³The weight of gold that came to Solomon^a annually was twenty-five tons,^{A 14}besides what was brought by the merchants and traders. All the Arabian kings and governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; 15 pounds^B of hammered gold went into each shield. ¹⁶He made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; 7½ pounds^C of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.^b

¹⁷The king also made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁸The throne had six steps; there was a footstool covered in gold for the throne, armrests on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests. ¹⁹Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps, one at each end. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.

²⁰All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, since it was considered as nothing in Solomon’s time, ²¹for the king’s ships kept going to Tarshish^c with Hiram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver,…