Dual PanelThe reign of Solomon
1WHEN Solomon had completed the house of the LORD and the palace and all the plans for building on which he had set his heart,
2the LORD again appeared to him, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon,
3and said, “I have heard the prayer and supplication which you have offered me. I have consecrated this house which you have built to receive my name for all time, and my eyes and my heart will be fixed on it for ever.
4If you, for your part, live in my sight as your father David lived, in integrity and uprightness, doing all I command you and observing my statutes and my judgements,
5then I shall establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel for ever, as I promised your father David when I said, ‘You shall never want for a man on the throne of Israel.’
6But if you or your sons turn away from following me and do not observe my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, and if you go and serve other gods and bow down before them,
7then I shall cut off Israel from the land which I gave them; I shall renounce this house which I have consecrated to my name, and Israel will become a byword and an object-lesson among all peoples.
8This house will become a ruin; every passer-by will be appalled and gasp at the sight of it; and they will ask, ‘Why has the LORD so treated this land and this house?’
9The answer will be, ‘Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought their forefathers out of Egypt, and they clung to other gods, bowing down before them and serving them; that is why the LORD has brought all this misfortune on them.’”
10At the end of the twenty years it had taken Solomon to build the two houses, the house of the LORD and the palace,
11he made over to Hiram king of Tyre twenty towns in Galilee, for Hiram had supplied him with the timber, both cedar and pine, and the gold, all he requested.
12But when Hiram went from Tyre to inspect the towns, they did not satisfy him,
13and he said, “My brother, what kind of towns are these you have given me?” And so he called them the Land of Cabul, the name they still bear.
14Hiram had sent a hundred and twenty talents of gold to the king.
15This is the record of the forced labour which King Solomon conscripted to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16Gezer had been attacked and captured by Pharaoh king of Egypt, who had burnt it to the ground, put its Canaanite inhabitants to death, and given it as a marriage gift to his daughter, Solomon's wife.
17Solomon rebuilt it. He also built Lower Beth-horon,
18Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness,
19as well as all his store-cities, and the towns where he quartered his chariots and horses; and he carried out all his cherished plans for building in Jerusalem, in the Lebanon, and throughout his whole dominion.
20All the survivors of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites who did not belong to Israel --
21that is those of their descendants who survived in the land, wherever the Israelites had been unable to exterminate them -- all were employed by Solomon on perpetual forced labour, as they still are.
22None of the Israelites were put to forced labour; they were his fighting men, his captains and lieutenants, and the commanders of his chariots and of his cavalry.
23The number of officers in charge of the foremen over Solomon's work was five hundred and fifty; these superintended the people engaged on the work.
24Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the City of David to her own house which he had built for her; later he built the Millo.
25Three times a year Solomon used to offer whole-offerings and shared-offerings on the altar which he had built to the LORD, burning the offerings before the LORD. So he completed the house.
26King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in Edom.
27Hiram sent men of his own to serve with the fleet, experienced seamen, to work with Solomon's men.
28They went to Ophir and brought back four hundred and twenty talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.