1 Kings 9–10

The Lord Appears to Solomon

9:1–9pp—2Ch 7:11–22

9When Solomon had finished^r building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, ²the Lord appeared^s to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³The Lord said to him:

“I have heard^t the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name^u there forever. My eyes^v and my heart will always be there.

⁴“As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart^w and uprightness, as David^x your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,^{y 5}I will establish^z your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail^a to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

⁶“But if you^a or your descendants turn away^b from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you^b and go off to serve other gods^c and worship them, ⁷then I will cut off Israel from the land^d I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.^e Israel will then become a byword^f and an object of ridicule^g among all peoples. ⁸This temple will become a heap of rubble. All^c who pass by will be appalled^h and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’^{i 9}People will answer,^j ‘Because they have forsaken^k the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster^l on them.’ ”

Solomon’s Other Activities

9:10–28pp—2Ch 8:1–18

¹⁰At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the Lord and the royal palace—¹¹King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold^m he wanted. ¹²But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. ¹³“What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul,^dn a name they have to this day. ¹⁴Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents^e of gold.^o

¹⁵Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted^p to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,^fq the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor,^r Megiddo and Gezer.^{s 16}(Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter,^t Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,^{u 18}Baalath,^v and Tadmor^g in the desert, within his land, ¹⁹as well as all his store cities^w and the towns for his chariots^x and for his horses^h—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

²⁰There were still people left from the Amorites, Hittites,^y Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites^z (these peoples were not Israelites). ²¹Solomon conscripted the descendants^a of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminate^ib—to serve as slave labor,^c as it is to this day. ²²But Solomon did not make slaves^d of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers. ²³They were also the chief officials^e in charge of Solomon’s projects—550 officials supervising those who did the work.

²⁴After Pharaoh’s daughter^f had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the terraces.^g

²⁵Three^h times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.

²⁶King Solomon also built shipsⁱ at Ezion Geber,^j which is near Elath^k in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.^{j 27}And Hiram sent his men—sailors^l who knew the sea—to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men. ²⁸They sailed to Ophir^m and brought back 420 talents^k of gold,ⁿ which they delivered to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

10:1–13pp—2Ch 9:1–12

10When the queen of Sheba^o heard about the fame^p of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions.^{q 2}Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan^r—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. ³Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. ⁴When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, ⁵the food on his table,^s the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at^a the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

⁶She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. ⁷But I did not believe^t these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth^u you have far exceeded the report I heard. ⁸How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear^v your wisdom! ⁹Praise^w be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love^x for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice^y and righteousness.”

¹⁰And she gave the king 120 talents^b of gold,^z large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹(Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir;^a and from there they brought great cargoes of almugwood^c and precious stones. ¹²The king used the almugwood to make supports^d for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. So much almugwood has never been imported or seen since that day.)

¹³King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.

Solomon’s Splendor

10:14–29pp—2Ch 1:14–17; 9:13–28

¹⁴The weight of the gold^b that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents,^{e 15}not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the territories.

¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred large shields^c of hammered gold; six hundred shekels^f of gold went into each shield. ¹⁷He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minas^g of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.^d

¹⁸Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with fine gold. ¹⁹The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. ²⁰Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. ²¹All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold.^e Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days. ²²The king had a fleet of trading ships^hf at sea along with the ships^g of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

²³King Solomon was greater in riches^h and wisdomⁱ than all the other kings of the earth. ²⁴The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom^j God had put in his heart. ²⁵Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift^k—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

²⁶Solomon accumulated chariots and horses;^l he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses,ⁱ which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. ²⁷The king made silver as common^m in Jerusalem as stones,ⁿ and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig^o trees in the foothills. ²⁸Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue^j—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at the current price. ²⁹They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty.^k They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites^p and of the Arameans.