Kings III 9
1 And it came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the work of Solomon, whatever he wished to perform,
After Solomon had finished the Lord's Temple and the royal palace, having accomplished everything he'd wanted to do,
2 that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he appeared in Gabaon.
the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
3 And the Lord said to him, I have heard the voice of your prayer, and your supplication which you made before me: I have done for you according to all your prayer: I have hallowed this house which you have built to put my name there for ever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there always.
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.
4 And if you will walk before me as David your father walked, in holiness of heart and uprightness, and so as to do according to all that I commanded him, and shall keep my ordinances and my commandments:
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,
5 then will I establish the throne of your kingdom in Israel for ever, as I spoke to David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man to rule in Israel.
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.’
6 But if you or your children do in any wise revolt from me, and do not keep my commandments and my ordinances, which Moses set before you, and you go and serve other gods, and worship them:
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,
7 then will I cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and this house which I have consecrated to my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a desolation and a byword to all nations.
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.
8 And this house, which is high, shall be [so that] every one that passes by it shall be amazed, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Therefore has the Lord done thus to this land, and to this house?
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?’
9 And [men] shall say, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought out their fathers from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and they attached themselves to strange gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore the Lord has brought this evil upon them. Then Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharao out of the city of David into his house which he built for himself in those days.
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.’”
10 [During] twenty years in which Solomon was building the two houses, the house of the Lord, and the house of the king,
It took twenty years for Solomon to construct the two buildings—the Temple of the Lord and his own palace. After this,
11 Chiram king of Tyre helped Solomon with cedar wood, and fir wood, and with gold, and all that he wished for: then the king gave Chiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
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.
12 So Chiram departed from Tyre, and went into Galilee to see the cities which Solomon gave to him; and they pleased him not. And he said,
But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, he was not happy with them.
13 What [are] these cities which you have given me, brother? And he called them Boundary until this day.
“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.
14 And Chiram brought to Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold,
Even so, Hiram sent the king 120 talents of gold in payment.
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.
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.
Solomon rebuilt Gezer and lower Beth-horon,
Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,
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.
The descendants of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (people who were not Israelites)
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.
But Solomon did not enslave any of the Israelites. They were his soldiers, officials, commanders, captains, chariot commanders, and horsemen.
They were also the chief officers in charge of Solomon's programs: 550 in command of the people who carried out the work.
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.
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.
26 even that for which king Solomon built a ship in Gasion Gaber near Aelath on the shore of the extremity of the sea in the land of Edom.
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.
27 And Chiram sent in the ship together with the servants of Solomon servants of his own, mariners to row, men acquainted with the sea.
Hiram sent his sailors who knew the sea to serve in the fleet with Solomon's men.
28 And they came to Sophira, and took thence a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.
They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold from there and delivered it to Solomon.
