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, clothes, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁵Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and he had twelve thousand horses. He kept some in special cities for the chariots, and others he kept with him in Jerusalem. ²⁶Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. ²⁷In Jerusalem the king made silver as common as stones and cedar trees as plentiful as the fig trees on the western hills. ²⁸Solomon imported horses from Egypt and all other countries.

Solomon’s Death

²⁹Everything else Solomon did, from the beginning to the end, is written in the records of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer, who wrote about Jeroboam, Nebat’s son. ³⁰Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. ³¹Then Solomon died and was buried in Jerusalem, the city of David, his father. And Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king in his place.

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