1 Kings 9

1 After Solomon had finished the Lord's Temple and the royal palace, having accomplished everything he'd wanted to do,

Now when Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all Solomon's desires, which he had in mind were effected;

2 the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

The Lord came to him again in a vision, as he had done at Gibeon;

3 The Lord told him, “I have heard your prayer and your request to me. I have dedicated this Temple you have built by placing my name on it forever; I will always watch over it and take care of it.

And the Lord said to him, Your prayers and your requests for grace have come to my ears: I have made holy this house which you have made, and I have put my name there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

4 As for you, if you follow my ways as your father David did, doing everything I've told you to do, and if you keep my laws and regulations,

As for you, if you will go on your way before me, as David your father did, uprightly and with a true heart, doing what I have given you orders to do, keeping my laws and my decisions;

5 then I will make your throne secure forever. I made this agreement with your father David, telling him, ‘You will always have a descendant to rule over Israel.’

Then I will make the seat of your rule over Israel certain for ever, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be king in Israel.

6 But if you or your descendants turn away and do not keep the laws and the commandments I have given you, and if you go and serve and worship other gods,

But if you are turned from my ways, you or your children, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods and give them worship:

7 then I will cut Israel off from the land I have given them. I will banish from my presence this Temple I have dedicated to my honor, and I will make it an object lesson of ridicule among the nations.

Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for myself, I will put away from before my eyes; and Israel will be a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples.

8 This Temple will become a pile of rubble. All who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss, saying, ‘Why has the Lord acted in such a way to this land and this Temple?’

And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder at it and make whistling sounds; and they will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house?

9 The answer will come, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their forefathers out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping them and serving them. That's why the Lord has brought all this trouble upon them.’”

And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord their God, who took their fathers out of the land of Egypt; they took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why the Lord has sent all this evil on them.

10 It took twenty years for Solomon to construct the two buildings—the Temple of the Lord and his own palace. After this,

Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house,

11 King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had provided him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted.

(Hiram, king of Tyre, had given Solomon cedar-trees and cypress-trees and gold, as much as he had need of, ) King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee.

12 But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, he was not happy with them.

But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns which Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.

13 “What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram. He called them the land of Cabul, the name they are known by to this day.

And he said, What sort of towns are these which you have given me, my brother? So they were named the land of Cabul, to this day.

14 Even so, Hiram sent the king 120 talents of gold in payment.

And Hiram sent the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.

15 Here is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the Lord's Temple, his own palace, the terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

Now, this was the way of Solomon's system of forced work for the building of the Lord's house and of the king's house, and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Megiddo and Gezer. ...

16 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire, killed the Canaanites living in the town. He had then given it as a wedding dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife.

Pharaoh, king of Egypt, came and took Gezer, burning it down and putting to death the Canaanites living in the town, and he gave it for a bride-offering to his daughter, Solomon's wife. ...

17 Solomon rebuilt Gezer and lower Beth-horon,

... and Solomon was the builder of Gezer and Beth-horon the lower,

18 Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,

And Baalath and Tamar in the waste land, in that land;

19 and all of Solomon's towns for storage, and the towns for his chariots and for his horsemen, plus whatever Solomon wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom.

And all the store-towns and the towns which Solomon had for his war-carriages and for his horsemen, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule.

20 The descendants of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (people who were not Israelites)

As for the rest of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not children of Israel;

21 who remained in the land—those whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely—were conscripted by Solomon to work as forced laborers, as they continue to do to this day.

Their children who were still in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not been able to put to complete destruction, them did Solomon put to forced work, to this day.

22 But Solomon did not enslave any of the Israelites. They were his soldiers, officials, commanders, captains, chariot commanders, and horsemen.

But Solomon did not put the children of Israel to forced work; they were the men of war, his servants, his captains, and his chiefs, captains of his war-carriages and of his horsemen.

23 They were also the chief officers in charge of Solomon's programs: 550 in command of the people who carried out the work.

These were the chiefs of the overseers of Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, in authority over the people who did the work.

24 Once Pharaoh's daughter had moved from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the city terraces.

At that time Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her: then he made the Millo.

25 Three times each year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and friendship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord with them, and so fulfilled what was required at the Temple.

Three times in the year it was Solomon's way to give burned offerings and peace-offerings on the altar he had made to the Lord, causing his fire-offering to go up on the altar before the Lord.

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

And King Solomon made a sea-force of ships in Ezion-geber, by Eloth, on the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

27 Hiram sent his sailors who knew the sea to serve in the fleet with Solomon's men.

Hiram sent his servants, who were experienced seamen, in the sea-force with Solomon's men.

28 They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold from there and delivered it to Solomon.

And they came to Ophir, where they got four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and took it back to King Solomon.