2 Chronicles 8

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.