2 Chronicles 7–9

Solomon Dedicates the Temple

7When ^aSolomon had finished praying, ^bfire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and ^cthe glory of the Lord filled the ¹temple. ^2dAnd the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. ³When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying:

^e“For He is good,

^fFor His mercy endures forever.”

^4gThen the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. ⁵King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ^6hAnd the priests attended to their services; the Levites also with instruments of the music of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord, saying, “For His mercy endures forever,” whenever David offered praise by their ²ministry. ⁱThe priests sounded trumpets opposite them, while all Israel stood.

⁷Furthermore ^jSolomon consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord; for there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat.

^8kAt that time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly ^lfrom the entrance of Hamath to ^mthe ³Brook of Egypt. ⁹And on the eighth day they held a ⁿsacred assembly, for they observed the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. ^10oOn the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the good that the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel. ¹¹Thus ^pSolomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house.

God’s Second Appearance to Solomon

¹²Then the Lord ^qappeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, ^rand have chosen this ^splace for Myself as a house of sacrifice. ^13tWhen I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴if My people who are ^ucalled by My name will ^vhumble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, ^wthen I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵Now ^xMy eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. ¹⁶For now ^yI have chosen and ⁴sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and ⁵My eyes and ⁶My heart will be there perpetually. ^17zAs for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, ¹⁸then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ^a‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’

^19b“But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, ^20cthen I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have ⁷sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a ^dbyword among all peoples.

²¹“And as for ^ethis ⁸house, which ⁹is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be ^fastonished and say, ^g‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ ²²Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”

Solomon’s Additional Achievements

8It ^acame to pass at the end of ^btwenty years, when Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house, ²that the cities which ¹Hiram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them; and he settled the children of Israel there. ³And Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it. ^4cHe also built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities which he built in ^dHamath. ⁵He built Upper Beth Horon and ^eLower Beth Horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, ⁶also Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the chariot cities and the cities of the cavalry, and all that Solomon ^fdesired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

^7gAll the people who were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel—⁸that is, their descendants who were left in the land after them, whom the children of Israel did not destroy—from these Solomon raised forced labor, as it is to this day. ⁹But Solomon did not make the children of Israel ²servants for his work. Some were men of war, captains of his officers, captains of his chariots, and his cavalry. ¹⁰And others were chiefs of the officials of King Solomon: ^htwo hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people.

¹¹Now Solomon ⁱbrought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the Lord has come are holy.”

¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built before the vestibule, ¹³according to the ^jdaily rate, offering according to the commandment of Moses, for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the ^kthree appointed yearly ^lfeasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁴And, according to the ³order of David his father, he appointed the ^mdivisions of the priests for their service, ⁿthe Levites for their duties (to praise and serve before the priests) as the duty of each day required, and the ^ogatekeepers by their divisions at each gate; for so David the man of God had commanded. ¹⁵They did not depart from the command of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter or concerning the ^ptreasuries.

¹⁶Now all the work of Solomon was well-ordered ⁴from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to ^qEzion Geber and ⁵Elath on the seacoast, in the land of Edom. ^18rAnd Hiram sent him ships by the hand of his servants, and servants who knew the sea. They went with the servants of Solomon to ^sOphir, and acquired four hundred and fifty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba’s Praise of Solomon

9Now ^awhen the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with hard questions, having a very great retinue, camels that bore spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. ²So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for Solomon that he could not explain it to her. ³And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, ⁴the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his ^bcupbearers and their apparel, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.

⁵Then she said to the king: “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. ⁶However I did not believe their words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You exceed the fame of which I heard. ⁷Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! ⁸Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on His throne to be king for the Lord your God! Because your God has ^cloved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.”

⁹And she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great abundance, and precious stones; there never were any spices such as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰Also, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, ^dwho brought gold from Ophir, brought ¹algum wood and precious stones. ¹¹And the king made walkways of the ²algum wood for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also harps and stringed instruments for singers; and there were none such as these seen before in the land of Judah.

¹²Now King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, much more than she had brought to the king. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

Solomon’s Great Wealth

^13eThe weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, ¹⁴besides what the traveling merchants and traders brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon. ¹⁵And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. ¹⁶He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold; ³three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the ^fHouse of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁸The throne had six steps, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne; there were ⁴armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests. ¹⁹Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.

²⁰All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure…