1 Kings 9

1 And it came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that he desired, and was pleased to do,

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

2 That the Lord appeared to him the second time, as he had appeared to him in Gabaon.

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 thy prayer and thy supplication, which thou hast made before me: I have sanctified this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever, and my eyes and my heart shall be there always.

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 if thou wilt walk before me, as thy father walked, in simplicity of heart, and in uprightness: and wilt do all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my ordinances and my judgments,

“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 I will establish the throne of thy kingdom over Israel for ever, as I promised David thy father, saying: There shall not fail a man of thy race upon 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 you and your children revolting shall turn away from following me, and will not keep my commandments, and my ceremonies, which I have set before you, but will go and worship strange gods, and adore them:

“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 I will take away Israel from the face of the land which I have given them; and the temple which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb, and a byword among all people.

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 this house shall be made an example of: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and say: Why hath the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house:

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 they shall answer: Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and followed strange gods, and adored them, and worshipped them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.

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 And when twenty years were ended after Solomon had built the two houses, that is, the house of the Lord, and the house of the king,

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

11 (Hiram the king of Tyre furnishing Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and gold according to all he had need of.) then Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

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 And Hiram came out of Tyre, to see the towns which Solomon had given him, and they pleased him not,

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 And he said: Are these the cities which thou hast given me, brother? And he called them the land of Chabul, unto 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 sent to king Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold.

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

15 This is the sum of the expenses, which king Solomon offered to build the house of the Lord, and his own house, and Mello, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Heser, and Mageddo, and Gazer.

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 Pharao the king of Egypt came up and took Gazer, and burnt it with fire: and slew the Chanaanite that dwelt in the city, and gave it for 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 built: Gazer, and Beth-horon the nether,

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

18 And Baalath, and Palmira in the land of the wilderness.

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

19 And all the towns that belonged to himself, and were not walled, he fortified, the cities also of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen, and whatsoever he had a mind to build in Jerusalem, and in Libanus, and in all 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 All the people that were left of the Amorrhites, and Hethites, and Pherezites, and Hevites, and Jebusites, that are not of the children of Israel:

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 children, that were left in the land, to wit, such as the children of Israel had not been able to destroy, Solomon made tributary unto 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 of the children of Israel Solomon made not any to be bondmen, but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and captains, and overseers of the chariots and horses.

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 And there were five hundred and fifty chief officers set over all the works of Solomon, and they had people under them, and had charge over the appointed works.

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

24 And the daughter of Pharao came up out of the city of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Mello.

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 Solomon also offered three times every year holocausts, and victims of peace offerings upon the altar which he had built to the Lord, and he burnt incense before the Lord: and the temple was finished.

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 And king Solomon made a fleet in Asiongaber, which is by Ailath on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom.

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 in the fleet, sailors that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

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

28 And they came to Ophir, and they brought from thence to king Solomon four hundred and twenty talents of gold.

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