^9:10After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and the royal palace,¹⁹^9:11King Solomon gave King Hiram of Tyre²⁰ twenty cities in the region of Galilee, because Hiram had supplied Solomon with cedars, evergreens, and all the gold he wanted. ^9:12When Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the cities Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.²¹^9:13Hiram asked,²² “Why did you give me these cities, my friend²³?” He called that area the region of Cabul, a name which it has retained to this day.²⁴^9:14Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talents²⁵ of gold.

^9:15Here are the details concerning the work crews²⁶ King Solomon conscripted²⁷ to build the Lord’s temple, his palace, the terrace, the wall of Jerusalem,²⁸ and the cities of²⁹ Hazor,³⁰ Megiddo,³¹ and Gezer. ^9:16(Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer. He burned it and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city. He gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, who had married Solomon.) ^9:17Solomon built up Gezer, lower Beth Horon, ^9:18Baalath, Tadmor in the wilderness,³²^9:19all the storage cities that belonged to him,³³ and the cities where chariots and horses were kept.³⁴ He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom.³⁵^9:20Now several non-Israelite peoples were left in the land after the conquest of Joshua, including the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.³⁶^9:21Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out completely). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews, and they continue in that role to this very day.³⁷^9:22Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews;³⁸ the Israelites served as his soldiers, attendants, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces.³⁹^9:23These men were also in charge of Solomon’s work projects; there were a total of 550 men who supervised the workers.⁴⁰^9:24Solomon built the terrace as soon as Pharaoh’s daughter moved up from the city of David⁴¹ to the palace Solomon built for her.⁴²

^9:25Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings⁴³ on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense along with them before the Lord. He made the temple his official worship place.⁴⁴

^9:26King Solomon also built ships⁴⁵ in Ezion Geber, which is located near Elat in the land of Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. ^9:27Hiram sent his fleet and some of his sailors, who were well acquainted with the sea, to serve with Solomon’s men.⁴⁶^9:28They sailed⁴⁷ to Ophir, took from there four hundred twenty talents⁴⁸ of gold, and then brought them to King Solomon.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

19 Heb “the two houses, the house of the Lord and the house of the king.”
20 For location see ; ; ; ; .
21 Heb “they were not agreeable in his eyes.”
22 Heb “and he said.”
23 Heb “my brother.” Kings allied through a parity treaty would sometimes address each other as “my brother.” See 1 Kgs 20:32–33.
24 Heb “he called them the land of Cabul to this day.” The significance of the name is unclear, though it appears to be disparaging. The name may be derived from a root, attested in Akkadian and Arabic, meaning “bound” or “restricted.” Some propose a wordplay, pointing out that the name “Cabul” sounds like a Hebrew phrase meaning, “like not,” or “as good as nothing.”
25 The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 9,000 pounds of gold (cf. , ); “five tons”; “4,000 kilogrammes.”
26 The work crews. This Hebrew word מַס (mas) refers to a group of laborers conscripted for royal or public service.
27 Heb “raised up.”
28 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
29 The words “the cities of” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
30 For location see ; ; ; .
31 For location see ; ; ; ; .
32 The Hebrew text has “in the wilderness, in the land.”
33 Heb “to Solomon.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
34 Heb “the cities of the chariots and the cities of the horses.”
35 Heb “and the desire of Solomon which he desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his kingdom.”
36 Heb “all the people who were left from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not from the sons of Israel.”
37 Heb “their sons who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel were unable to wipe out, and Solomon raised them up for a crew of labor to this day.”
38 These work crews. The work crews referred to here must be different than the temporary crews described in 5:13–16.
39 Heb “officers of his chariots and his horses.”
40 Heb “these [were] the officials of the governors who were over the work belonging to Solomon, five hundred fifty, the ones ruling over the people, the ones doing the work.”
41 The phrase city of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
42 Heb “As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her house which he built for her, then he built the terrace.”
43 Or “tokens of peace”; , “fellowship offerings.”
44 Heb “and he made complete the house.”
45 Or “a fleet” (in which case “ships” would be implied).
46 Heb “and Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, men of ships, [who] know the sea, [to be] with the servants of Solomon.”
47 Heb “went.”
48 The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 31,500 pounds of gold (cf. ); , “sixteen tons”; “more than 14,000 kilogrammes.”