2 Chronicles 7–9

Chapter 7

The Shekinah Glory

^1aNow when Solomon had finished praying, ^bfire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

^2aThe priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.

³All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord, saying, “^aTruly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Sacrifices Offered

^4aThen the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord.

⁵King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

⁶The priests stood at their posts, and ^athe Levites also, with the instruments of music to the Lord, which King David had made for giving praise to the Lord—“for His lovingkindness is everlasting”—whenever ¹he gave praise by their ²means, while ^bthe priests on the other side blew trumpets; and all Israel was standing.

^7aThen Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat.

The Feast of Dedication

⁸So ^aSolomon observed the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly who came from the entrance of Hamath to the ^bbrook of Egypt.

⁹On the eighth day they held ^aa solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar they observed seven days and the feast seven days.

¹⁰Then on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their tents, rejoicing and happy of heart because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and to Solomon and to His people Israel.

God’s Promise and Warning

^11aThus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s palace, and successfully completed all that ¹he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and in his palace.

¹²Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and ^ahave chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

¹³“^aIf I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,

^14aand My people ¹who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

¹⁵“^aNow My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the ¹prayer offered in this place.

¹⁶“For ^anow I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

¹⁷“As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances,

¹⁸then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘^1aYou shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.’

¹⁹“^aBut if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

^20athen I will uproot you from My land which I have given ¹you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it ^ba proverb and a byword among all peoples.

²¹“As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘^aWhy has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’

²²“And they will say, ‘Because ^athey forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’ ”

Chapter 8

Solomon’s Activities and Accomplishments

^1aNow it came about at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house

²that he built the cities which Huram had given to ¹him, and settled the sons of Israel there.

³Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities which he had built in Hamath.

⁵He also built upper ^aBeth-horon and lower Beth-horon, ^bfortified cities with walls, gates and bars;

⁶and Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for ¹his chariots and cities for his horsemen, and all that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land ²under his rule.

^7aAll of the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,

⁸namely, from their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of Israel had not destroyed, ^athem Solomon raised as forced laborers to this day.

⁹But Solomon did not make slaves for his work from the sons of Israel; they were men of war, his chief captains and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.

¹⁰These were the chief ¹officers of King Solomon, two hundred and fifty who ruled over the people.

^11aThen Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because ¹the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered.”

¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on ^athe altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch;

¹³and ^adid so according to the daily rule, offering them up ^baccording to the commandment of Moses, for ^cthe sabbaths, ^dthe new moons and the ^ethree annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths.

¹⁴Now according to the ordinance of his father David, he appointed ^athe divisions of the priests for their service, and ^bthe Levites for their duties of praise and ministering before the priests according to the daily rule, and ^cthe gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for ^dDavid the man of God had so commanded.

¹⁵And they did not depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any manner or concerning the storehouses.

¹⁶Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out ¹from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to ^aEzion-geber and to ^bEloth on the seashore in the land of Edom.

¹⁸And Huram by his servants sent him ships and servants who knew the sea; and they went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, and ^atook from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.

Chapter 9

Visit of the Queen of Sheba

^1aNow when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions. She had a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and a large amount of gold and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was on her heart.

²Solomon ¹answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from Solomon which he did not ²explain to her.

³When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he had built,

⁴the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and ¹his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, she was breathless.

⁵Then she said to the king, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom.

⁶“Nevertheless I did not believe their reports until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpass the report that I heard.

⁷“How ¹blessed are your men, how blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom.

⁸“Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you, ^asetting you on His throne as king for the Lord your God; ^bbecause your God loved Israel establishing them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.”

⁹Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great amount of spices and precious stones; there had never been spice like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰The servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon ^awho brought gold from Ophir, also brought algum trees and precious stones.

¹¹From the algum trees the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king’s palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; and none like that was seen before in the land of Judah.

¹²King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested besides a return for what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and went to her own land with her servants.

Solomon’s Wealth and Power

^13aNow the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold,

¹⁴besides that which the traders and merchants brought; and all ^athe kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold, ¹using 600 shekels of beaten gold on each large shield.

¹⁶He made 300 shields of beaten gold, ¹using three hundred shekels of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

¹⁸There were six steps to the throne and a footstool in gold attached to the throne, and ¹arms ²on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms.

¹⁹Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other; nothing like it was made for any other kingdom.

²⁰All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered ¹valuable in the days of Solomon.

^21aFor the king…