1 Kings 9:10–28

Solomon’s Agreement with Hiram

¹⁰It took Solomon twenty years to build the Temple and his palace. ¹¹King Hiram of Tyre had provided him with all the cedar and pine and with all the gold he wanted for this work. After it was finished, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the region of Galilee. ¹²Hiram went to see them, and he did not like them. ¹³So he said to Solomon, “So these, my brother, are the towns you have given me!” For this reason the area is still called Cabul.^{b 14}Hiram had sent Solomon more than 4,000 kilogrammes of gold.

Further Achievements of Solomon

¹⁵King Solomon used forced labour to build the Temple and the palace, to fill in land on the east side of the city, and to build the city wall. He also used it to rebuild the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶(The king of Egypt had attacked Gezer and captured it, killing its inhabitants and setting fire to the city. Then he gave it as a wedding present to his daughter when she married Solomon, ¹⁷and Solomon rebuilt it.) Using his forced labour, Solomon also rebuilt Lower Beth Horon, ¹⁸Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness of Judah, ¹⁹the cities where his supplies were kept, the cities for his horses and chariots, and everything else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and elsewhere in his kingdom. ^20–21For his forced labour Solomon used the descendants of the people of Canaan whom the Israelites had not killed when they took possession of their land. These included Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, whose descendants continue to be slaves down to the present time. ²²Solomon did not make slaves of Israelites; they served as his soldiers, officers, commanders, chariot captains, and horsemen.

²³There were 550 officials in charge of the forced labour working on Solomon’s various building projects.

²⁴Solomon filled in the land on the east side of the city, after his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, had moved from David’s City to the palace Solomon built for her.

^25*Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built to the Lord. He also burnt incense^c to the Lord. And so he finished building the Temple.

²⁶King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Eziongeber, which is near Elath, on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land of Edom. ²⁷King Hiram sent some experienced seamen from his fleet to serve with Solomon’s men. ²⁸They sailed to the land of Ophir, and brought back to Solomon more than 14,000 kilogrammes of gold.