1 Kings 9:10–28

King Hiram’s 20 Towns

¹⁰At the end of 20 years during which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord’s temple and the royal palace ^b— ¹¹Hiram king of Tyre ^chaving supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold ^dfor his every wish ^e—King Solomon gave Hiram 20 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, ^fas they are still called today. ^g14Now Hiram had sent the king 9,000 pounds ^hof gold. ⁱ

Solomon’s Forced Labor

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor ^jthat King Solomon had imposed to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, ^kthe wall of Jerusalem, ^land Hazor, ^mMegiddo, ⁿand Gezer. ^o16Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He then burned it down, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. ^p17Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, ^q18Baalath, ^rTamar ^stin the Wilderness of Judah, ¹⁹all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities, ^uthe cavalry cities, ^vand whatever Solomon desired to build ^win Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

²⁰As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites— ²¹their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to completely destroy ^x—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way until today. ^y22But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to slavery; ^zthey were soldiers, his servants, his commanders, his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry. ²³These were the deputies ^awho were over Solomon’s work: 550 who ruled over the people doing the work. ^b

Solomon’s Other Activities

²⁴Pharaoh’s daughter moved from the city of David ^cto the house that Solomon had built for her; ^dhe then built the terraces. ^e

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. ^fSo he completed the temple. ^g

²⁶King Solomon put together a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, ^hwhich 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 ⁱand acquired gold there—16 tons ^j—and delivered it to Solomon. ^k