2 Chronicles 7–9

The Temple Is Given to the Lord

7When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from the sky and burned up the burnt offering and the sacrifices. The Lord’s glory filled the Temple. ²The priests could not enter the Temple of the Lord, because the Lord’s glory filled it. ³When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down from heaven and the Lord’s glory on the Temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and thanked the Lord, saying,

“He is good;

his love continues forever.”

⁴Then King Solomon and all the people offered sacrifices to the Lord. ⁵King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people gave the Temple to God. ⁶The priests stood ready to do their work. The Levites also stood with the instruments of the Lord’s music that King David had made for praising the Lord. The priests and Levites were saying, “His love continues forever.” The priests, who stood across from the Levites, blew their trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.

⁷Solomon made holy the middle part of the courtyard, which is in front of the Temple of the Lord. There he offered whole burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings. He offered them in the courtyard, because the bronze altar he had made could not hold the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fat.

⁸Solomon and all the Israelites celebrated the festival for seven days. There were many people, and they came from as far away as Lebo Hamath and the brook of Egypt. ⁹For seven days they celebrated giving the altar for the worship of God. Then they celebrated the festival for seven days. On the eighth day they had a meeting. ¹⁰On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon sent the people home, full of joy. They were happy because the Lord had been so good to David, Solomon, and his people Israel.

The Lord Appears to Solomon

¹¹Solomon finished the Temple of the Lord and his royal palace. He had success in doing everything he planned in the Temple of the Lord and his own palace. ¹²Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself to be a Temple for sacrifices.

¹³“I may stop the sky from sending rain. I may command the locusts to destroy the land. I may send sicknesses to my people. ¹⁴Then if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, if they will pray and seek me and stop their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. ¹⁵Now I will see them, and I will listen to the prayers prayed in this place. ¹⁶I have chosen this Temple and made it holy. So I will be worshiped there forever. Yes, I will always watch over it and love it.

¹⁷“But you must serve me as your father David did. You must obey all I have commanded and keep my laws and rules. ¹⁸If you do, I will make your kingdom strong. This is the agreement I made with your father David, saying, ‘Someone from your family will always rule in Israel.’

¹⁹“But you must follow me and obey the laws and commands I have given you. You must not serve or worship other gods. ²⁰If you do, I will take the Israelites out of my land, the land I have given them, and I will leave this Temple that I have made holy. All the nations will make fun of it and speak evil about it. ²¹This Temple is honored now, but then, everyone who passes by will be shocked. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this terrible thing to this land and this Temple?’ ²²People will answer, ‘This happened because they left the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God who brought them out of Egypt. They decided to follow other gods and worshiped and served them, so he brought all this disaster on them.’ ”

Solomon’s Other Achievements

8By the end of twenty years, Solomon had built the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace. ²Solomon rebuilt the towns that Hiram had given him, and Solomon sent Israelites to live in them. ³Then he went to Hamath Zobah and captured it. ⁴Solomon also built the town of Tadmor in the desert, and he built all the towns in Hamath as towns for storing grain and supplies. ⁵He rebuilt the towns of Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon, protecting them with strong walls, gates, and bars in the gates. ⁶He also rebuilt the town of Baalath. And he built all the other towns for storage and all the cities for his chariots and horses. He built all he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and everywhere he ruled.

⁷There were other people in the land who were not Israelites—the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ⁸They were descendants of the people that the Israelites had not destroyed. Solomon forced them to be slave workers, as is still true today. ⁹But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites. They were his soldiers, chief captains, commanders of his chariots, and his chariot drivers. ¹⁰These were his most important officers. There were two hundred fifty of them to direct the people.

¹¹Solomon brought the daughter of the king of Egypt from the older part of Jerusalem to the palace he had built for her. Solomon said, “My wife must not live in King David’s palace, because the places where the Ark of the Agreement has been are holy.”

¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar he had built for the Lord in front of the Temple porch. ¹³He offered sacrifices every day as Moses had commanded. They were offered on the Sabbath days, New Moons, and the three yearly feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters. ¹⁴Solomon followed his father David’s instructions and chose the groups of priests for their service and the Levites to lead the praise and to help the priests do their daily work. And he chose the gatekeepers by their groups to serve at each gate, as David, the man of God, had commanded. ¹⁵They obeyed all of Solomon’s commands to the priests and Levites, as well as his commands about the treasuries.

¹⁶All Solomon’s work was done as he had said from the day the foundation of the Temple of the Lord was begun, until it was finished. So the Temple was finished.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to the towns of Ezion Geber and Elath near the Red Sea in the land of Edom. ¹⁸Hiram sent ships to Solomon that were commanded by his own men, who were skilled sailors. Hiram’s men went with Solomon’s men to Ophir and brought back about thirty-four thousand pounds of gold to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba Visits

9When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. She had a large group of servants with her and camels carrying spices, jewels, and much gold. When she came to Solomon, she talked with him about all she had in mind, ²and Solomon answered all her questions. Nothing was too hard for him to explain to her. ³The queen of Sheba saw that Solomon was very wise. She saw the palace he had built, ⁴the food on his table, his many officers, the palace servants and their good clothes, the servants who served Solomon his wine and their good clothes. She saw the whole burnt offerings he made in the Temple of the Lord. All these things amazed her.

⁵So she said to King Solomon, “What I heard in my own country about your achievements and wisdom is true. ⁶I did not believe it then, but now I have come and seen it with my own eyes. I was not told even half of your great wisdom! You are much greater than I had heard. ⁷Your people and officials are very lucky, because in always serving you, they are able to hear your wisdom. ⁸Praise the Lord your God who was pleased to make you king. He has put you on his throne to rule for the Lord your God, because your God loves the people of Israel and supports them forever. He has made you king over them to keep justice and to rule fairly.”

⁹Then she gave the king about nine thousand pounds of gold and many spices and jewels. No one had ever given such spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰Hiram’s men and Solomon’s men brought gold from Ophir, juniper wood, and jewels. ¹¹King Solomon used the juniper wood to build steps for the Temple of the Lord and the palace and to make lyres and harps for the musicians. No one in Judah had ever seen such beautiful things as these.

¹²King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted and asked for, even more than she had brought to him. Then she and her servants returned to her own country.

Solomon’s Wealth

¹³Every year King Solomon received about fifty thousand pounds of gold. ¹⁴Besides that, he also received gold from traders and merchants. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land also brought gold and silver.

¹⁵King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold, each of which contained about seven and one-half pounds of hammered gold. ¹⁶He also made three hundred smaller shields of hammered gold, each of which contained about four pounds of gold. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷The king built a large throne of ivory and covered it with pure gold. ¹⁸The throne had six steps on it and a gold footstool. There were armrests on both sides of the chair, and each armrest had a lion beside it. ¹⁹Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one lion at each end of each step. Nothing like this had ever been made for any other kingdom. ²⁰All of Solomon’s drinking cups, as well as the dishes in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon, were made of pure gold. In Solomon’s time people did not think silver was valuable.

²¹King Solomon had many ships that he sent out to trade, with Hiram’s men as the crews. Every three years the ships returned, bringing back gold, silver, ivory, apes, and baboons.

²²King Solomon had more riches and wisdom than all the other kings on earth. ²³All the kings of the earth wanted to see Solomon and listen to the wisdom God had given him. ²⁴Year after year everyone who came brought gifts of silver and gold,…