1 Kings 9:1–11:43

The Lord Appears to Solomon

9:1–9pp—2Ch 7:11–22

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

“I have heardt the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Nameu there forever. My eyesv and my heart will always be there.

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

6 “But if youa or your descendants turn awayb from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given youb and go off to serve other godsc and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the landd I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.e Israel will then become a bywordf and an object of ridiculeg among all peoples. 8 This temple will become a heap of rubble. Allc who pass by will be appalledh 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 forsakenk 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 disasterl on them.’ ”

Solomon’s Other Activities

9:10–28pp—2Ch 8:1–18

10 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the Lord and the royal palace—11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and goldm he wanted. 12 But 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,d n a name they have to this day. 14 Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talentse of gold.o

15 Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscriptedp to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,f q 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. 17 And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,u 18 Baalath,v and Tadmorg in the desert, within his land, 19 as well as all his store citiesw and the towns for his chariotsx and for his horsesh—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

20 There were still people left from the Amorites, Hittites,y Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusitesz (these peoples were not Israelites). 21 Solomon conscripted the descendantsa of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminatei b—to serve as slave labor,c as it is to this day. 22 But Solomon did not make slavesd 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. 23 They were also the chief officialse in charge of Solomon’s projects—550 officials supervising those who did the work.

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

25 Threeh 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.

26 King Solomon also built shipsi at Ezion Geber,j which is near Elathk in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.j 27 And Hiram sent his men—sailorsl who knew the sea—to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men. 28 They sailed to Ophirm and brought back 420 talentsk of gold,n which they delivered to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

10:1–13pp—2Ch 9:1–12

10 When the queen of Shebao heard about the famep 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 caravanr—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. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, 5 the food on his table,s the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made ata the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

6 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 7 But I did not believet these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealthu you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8 How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hearv your wisdom! 9 Praisew 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 lovex for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justicey and righteousness.”

10 And she gave the king 120 talentsb 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 almugwoodc and precious stones. 12 The king used the almugwood to make supportsd 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.)

13 King 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

14 The weight of the goldb 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.

16 King Solomon made two hundred large shieldsc of hammered gold; six hundred shekelsf of gold went into each shield. 17 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minasg of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.d

18 Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with fine gold. 19 The 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. 20 Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. 21 All 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. 22 The king had a fleet of trading shipsh f at sea along with the shipsg of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

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

26 Solomon 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. 27 The king made silver as commonm in Jerusalem as stones,n and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-figo trees in the foothills. 28 Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kuej—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at the current price. 29 They 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 Hittitesp and of the Arameans.

Solomon’s Wives

11 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign womenq besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites,r Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarrys with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines,t and his wives led him astray.u 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods,v and his heart was not fully devotedw to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtorethx the goddess of the Sidonians, and Moleky the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evilz in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

7 On a hill easta of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemoshb the detestable god of Moab, and for Molekc the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appearedd to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods,e Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command.f 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees,g which I commanded you, I will most certainly…