1 Kings 9

1 Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do,

After Solomon’s [workers] had finished building the temple and his palace and everything else that Solomon wanted them to build,

2 the LORD appeared to him a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

Yahweh appeared to him [in a dream] a second time, like he had appeared to him at [the city of] Gibeon.

3 And the LORD said to him: “I have heard your prayer and petition before Me. I have consecrated this temple you have built by putting My Name there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there for all time.

Yahweh said to him, “I heard what you prayed and what you pleaded for me to do. I have set apart/dedicated this temple which your [workers] have built to be the place where people will worship me forever. I will always watch over it and protect it.

4 And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,

“And as for you, if you conduct your life as I want you to, like your father David did, and if you very sincerely obey all the statutes and laws that I have commanded you to obey,

5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

I will do what I promised your father that I would do: I promised him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants.

6 But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods,

“But if you or your descendants turn away from me and disobey the commands and decrees that I have given to you, and if you start to worship other gods,

7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

I will remove my Israeli people from the land that I have given to them. I will also abandon this temple that I have set apart/dedicated to be the place where people should worship me. Then people everywhere will despise [the people of] Israel and make fun of them.

8 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

This temple will become a heap of ruins. Everyone who passes by will be astonished [when they see it], and they will be shocked and say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this temple?’

9 And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the LORD has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

And other people will reply, ‘It happened because the Israeli people abandoned Yahweh their God, the one who brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They started to accept and worship other gods. And that is why Yahweh has caused them to experience all these disasters.’”

10 Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the LORD and the royal palace,

Solomon’s [workers] labored for 20 years to build the temple and the palace.

11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every desire.

Hiram, the king of Tyre had [arranged for his workers to] give Solomon all the cedar and pine [logs] and all the gold that he needed [for this work]. After it was all finished, King Solomon gave to Hiram 20 cities in the Galilee region.

12 So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

But when Hiram went from Tyre [to Galilee] to see the cities that Solomon had given to him, he was not pleased with them.

13 “What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are called to this day.

He said to Solomon, “My friend, those cities that you gave me are worthless!” So, that area is still called ‘Worthless’.

14 And Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold.

Hiram paid Solomon only five tons of gold [for those cities].

15 This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

This is a record of the work that King Solomon forced men to do. He forced them to build the temple and his palace and the terraces/landfills [on the east side of the city], and the wall around Jerusalem, and [to rebuild the cities of] Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.

16 Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

[The reason they needed to rebuild Gezer was that the army of] the king of Egypt had attacked Gezer and captured it. Then they had burned [the houses in] the city and killed all the people of the Canaan people-group who lived there. The king of Egypt gave that city to his daughter as a gift when she married Solomon.

17 So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,

So Solomon’s workers also rebuilt Gezer, and they also rebuilt Lower Beth-Horon [city].

18 Baalath, and Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah,

They also rebuilt Baalath and Tamar [towns] in the desert in [the southern part of] Judah.

19 as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses —whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.

They also built cities where they kept the supplies for Solomon, the places where his horses and chariots were kept. They also built everything else that Solomon wanted them to build, in Jerusalem and in Lebanon, and in other places in the area over which he ruled.

20 As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)—

There were many people who belonged to the Amor people-group, the Heth people-group, the Periz people-group, the Hiv people-group, and the Jebus people-group who were not killed when the Israelis captured their land.

21 their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction —Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.

[Their descendants still lived in Israel]. It was those people whom Solomon forced to become his slaves [to build all those places], and they are still slaves.

22 But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry.

But Solomon did not force any Israeli people to become slaves. Some Israelis became soldiers and army officers and commanders and drivers of his chariots and soldiers who rode on horses.

23 They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.

There were 550 officials who supervised the slaves who worked [to build all those places].

24 As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

After [Solomon’s wife, who was] the daughter of the king of Egypt, moved from [the place outside Jerusalem called] ‘The City of David’ to the palace that Solomon’s workers built for her, Solomon [told his workers to] fill in the slopes on the east side of the city.

25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple.

Three times each year Solomon [brought to the temple] offerings that were completely burned [on the altar] and offerings to restore fellowship with Yahweh. He also brought incense to be burned in the presence of Yahweh. And so his men finished building the temple.

26 King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

King Solomon’s [workers] also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber [city], which is near Elath [city], on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land belonging to the Edom people-group.

27 And Hiram sent his servants, men who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants.

[King] Hiram sent some very expert sailors to work on the ships with Solomon’s workers.

28 They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents —and delivered it to Solomon.

They sailed to [the] Ophir [region] and brought back to Solomon about 16 tons of gold.