1 KingsChapter 9
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1Solomon finished building the house of the LORD and the king's palace. He had done everything he wanted to do. 2Then the LORD came to him a second time. He came to him as he had at Gibeon. 3The LORD said to him, "I have heard your prayer. I have heard what you asked of me. You built this temple, and I have made it holy. I have put my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 4As for you, if you live before me as your father David did, with an honest and upright heart, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my rules and laws, 5Then I will make your royal throne over Israel last forever. I promised your father David, 'You will always have a man on the throne of Israel.' 6But if you or your sons turn away from following me, and do not keep the commands and rules I have given you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, 7then I will remove Israel from the land I gave them. I have made this temple holy for my Name. But I will throw it away from my sight. Then all the peoples will laugh at Israel and make fun of them. 8This temple will become a pile of ruins. All who pass by will be shocked. They will make fun of it with hissing sounds. They will say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and this temple?' 9Others will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt. They have held on to other gods. They worshiped them and served them. That is why the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.'" 10It took Solomon twenty years to build the two houses. They were the house of the LORD and the king's palace. At the end of that time, 11King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre. Hiram had given him all the cedar and cypress logs and gold he wanted. 12Hiram came from Tyre to look at the towns Solomon had given him. But he did not like them. 13Hiram asked, "My brother, what kind of towns are these you've given me?" He called them the Land of Cabul. They still have that name today.a 14Hiram had sent the king about 9,000 pounds of gold.b 15This is the story of the forced labor King Solomon used. He forced people to work to build the house of the LORD and his own palace. They built the terraces and the wall of Jerusalem. They also built Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked Gezer and captured it. He burned it down. He killed the Canaanites who lived there. Then he gave the city to his daughter, Solomon's wife, as a wedding gift. 17So Solomon rebuilt Gezer. He also built Lower Beth-horon, 18Baalath, and Tamar in the desert of Judah. 19He built all the cities where he stored supplies. He built cities for his chariots and horses. He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and all through the land he ruled. 20There were still some people left in the land who were not Israelites. They were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 21The Israelites had not been able to destroy them completely. So their children were still in the land. Solomon forced these people to be slave workers. They are still slave workers today. 22But Solomon did not make any Israelites slaves, because they were his soldiers, his servants, and his officials. They were his captains and the commanders of his chariots and horsemen. 23They were also the chief officers over Solomon's work. There were 550 of them in charge of the people who did the work. 24Pharaoh's daughter moved up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her. After that, Solomon built the terraces. 25Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD. He burned incense with them before the LORD. So he finished the temple. 26King Solomon also built a group of ships at Ezion-geber. It is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. 27Hiram sent his servants to sail with Solomon's servants. They were sailors who knew the sea. 28They sailed to Ophir and brought back gold. It weighed about 31,500 pounds. They brought it to Solomon.c