8:1 1 Then Solomon convened in Jerusalem 2 Israel’s elders, all the leaders of the Israelite tribes and families, so they could witness the transferal of the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the city of David (that is, Zion). 3 8:2 All the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon during the festival 4 in the month Ethanim 5 (the seventh month). 8:3 When all Israel’s elders had arrived, the priests lifted the ark. 8:4 The priests and Levites carried the ark of the Lord, the tent of meeting, 6 and all the holy items in the tent. 7 8:5 Now King Solomon and all the Israelites who had assembled with him went on ahead of the ark and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted or numbered. 8
8:6 The priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its assigned 9 place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubs. 8:7 The cherubs’ wings extended over the place where the ark sat; the cherubs overshadowed the ark and its poles. 10 8:8 The poles were so long their ends were visible from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point. 11 They have remained there to this very day. 8:9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb. 12 It was there that 13 the Lord made an agreement with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 8:10 Once the priests left the holy place, a cloud filled the Lord’s temple. 8:11 The priests could not carry out their duties 14 because of the cloud; the Lord’s glory filled his temple. 15
8:12 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he lives in thick darkness. 8:13 O Lord, 16 truly I have built a lofty temple for you, a place where you can live permanently.” 8:14 Then the king turned around 17 and pronounced a blessing over the whole Israelite assembly as they stood there. 18 8:15 He said, “The Lord God of Israel is worthy of praise because he has fulfilled 19 what he promised 20 my father David. 8:16 He told David, 21 ‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a temple in which to live. 22 But I have chosen David to lead my people Israel.’ 8:17 Now my father David had a strong desire 23 to build a temple to honor the Lord God of Israel. 24 8:18 The Lord told my father David, ‘It is right for you to have a strong desire to build a temple to honor me. 25 8:19 But you will not build the temple; your very own son will build the temple for my honor.’ 26 8:20 The Lord has kept the promise he made. 27 I have taken my father David’s place and have occupied the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised. I have built this temple for the honor 28 of the Lord God of Israel 8:21 and set up in it a place for the ark containing the covenant the Lord made with our ancestors 29 when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”
8:22 Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward the sky. 30 8:23 He prayed: 31 “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below! You maintain covenantal loyalty 32 to your servants who obey you with sincerity. 33 8:24 You have kept your word to your servant, my father David; 34 this very day you have fulfilled what you promised. 35 8:25 Now, O Lord, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said, ‘You will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel, 36 provided that your descendants watch their step and serve me as you have done.’ 37 8:26 Now, O God of Israel, may the promise you made 38 to your servant, my father David, be realized. 39
8:27 “God does not really live on the earth! 40 Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built! 8:28 But respond favorably to 41 your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer 42 the desperate prayer 43 your servant is presenting to you 44 today. 8:29 Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live. 45 May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place. 46 8:30 Respond to the request of your servant and your people Israel for this place. 47 Hear from inside your heavenly dwelling place 48 and respond favorably. 49
8:31 “When someone is accused of sinning against his neighbor and the latter pronounces a curse on the alleged offender before your altar in this temple, be willing to forgive the accused if the accusation is false. 50 8:32 Listen from heaven and make a just decision about your servants’ claims. Condemn the guilty party, declare the other innocent, and give both of them what they deserve. 51
8:33 “The time will come when 52 your people Israel are defeated by an enemy 53 because they sinned against you. If they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you, 54 and pray for your help 55 in this temple, 8:34 then listen from heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.
8:35 “The time will come when 56 the skies are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people 57 sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you, 58 and turn away from their sin because you punish 59 them, 8:36 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly 60 you will then teach them the right way to live 61 and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess. 62
8:37 “The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight and disease, or a locust 63 invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, 64 or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs. 8:38 When all your people Israel pray and ask for help, 65 as they acknowledge their pain 66 and spread out their hands toward this temple, 8:39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin, 67 and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of his motives. 68 (Indeed you are the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people.) 69 8:40 Then they will obey 70 you throughout their lifetimes as 71 they live on the land you gave to our ancestors.
8:41 “Foreigners, who do not belong to your people Israel, will come from a distant land because of your reputation. 72 8:42 When they hear about your great reputation 73 and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds, 74 they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple. 8:43 Then listen from your heavenly dwelling place and answer all the prayers of the foreigners. 75 Then all the nations of the earth will acknowledge your reputation, 76 obey 77 you like your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I built belongs to you. 78
8:44 “When you direct your people to march out and fight their enemies, 79 and they direct their prayers to the Lord 80 toward his chosen city and this temple I built for your honor, 81 8:45 then listen from heaven to their prayers for help 82 and vindicate them. 83
8:46 “The time will come when your people 84 will sin against you (for there is no one who is sinless!) and you will be angry with them and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their own land, 85 whether far away or close by. 8:47 When your people 86 come to their senses 87 in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray; 88 we have done evil.’ 8:48 When they return to you with all their heart and being 89 in the land where they are held prisoner, 90 and direct their prayers to you toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor, 91 8:49 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help 92 and vindicate them. 93 8:50 Forgive all the rebellious acts of your sinful people and cause their captors to have mercy on them. 94 8:51 After all, 95 they are your people and your special possession 96 whom you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. 97
8:52 “May you be attentive 98 to your servant’s and your people Israel’s requests for help and may you respond to all their prayers to you. 99 8:53 After all, 100 you picked them out of all the nations of the earth to be your special possession, 101 just as you, O sovereign Lord, announced through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”
8:54 When Solomon finished presenting all these prayers and requests to the Lord, he got up from before the altar of the Lord where he had kneeled and spread out his hands toward the sky. 102 8:55 When he stood up, he pronounced a blessing over the entire assembly of Israel, saying in a loud voice: 8:56 “The Lord is worthy of praise because he has made Israel his people secure 103 just as he promised! Not one of all the faithful promises he made through his servant Moses is left unfulfilled! 104 8:57 May the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors. May he not abandon us or leave us. 8:58 May he make us submissive, 105 so we can follow all his instructions 106 and obey 107 the commandments, rules, and regulations he commanded our ancestors. 8:59 May the Lord our God be constantly aware of these requests of mine I have presented to him, 108 so that he might vindicate 109 his servant and his people Israel as the need arises. 8:60 Then 110 all the nations of the earth will recognize that the Lord is the only genuine God. 111 8:61 May you demonstrate wholehearted devotion to the Lord our God 112 by following 113 his rules and obeying 114 his commandments, as you are presently doing.” 115
8:62 The king and all Israel with him were presenting sacrifices to the Lord. 8:63 Solomon offered as peace offerings 116 to the Lord 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. Then the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Lord’s temple. 8:64 That day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard that is in front of the Lord’s temple. He offered there burnt sacrifices, grain offerings, and the fat from the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that stood before the Lord was too small to hold all these offerings. 117 8:65 At that time Solomon and all Israel with him celebrated a festival before the Lord our God for two entire weeks. This great assembly included people from all over the land, from Lebo Hamath in the north to the Brook of Egypt 118 in the south. 119 8:66 On the fifteenth day after the festival started, 120 he dismissed the people. They asked God to empower the king 121 and then went to their homes, happy and content 122 because of all the good the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.
9:1 After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the other construction projects he had planned, 123 9:2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, in the same way he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 124 9:3 The Lord said to him, “I have answered 125 your prayer and your request for help that you made to me. I have consecrated this temple you built by making it my permanent home; 126 I will be constantly present there. 127 9:4 You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. 128 9:5 Then I will allow your dynasty to rule over Israel permanently, 129 just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ 130
9:6 “But if you or your sons ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, 131 and decide to serve and worship other gods, 132 9:7 then I will remove Israel from the land 133 I have given them, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, 134 and Israel will be mocked and ridiculed 135 among all the nations. 9:8 This temple will become a heap of ruins; 136 everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn, 137 saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’ 9:9 Others will then answer, 138 ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who led their ancestors 139 out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. 140 That is why the Lord has brought all this disaster down on them.’”
9:10 After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and the royal palace, 141 9:11 King Solomon gave King Hiram of Tyre 142 twenty cities in the region of Galilee, because Hiram had supplied Solomon with cedars, evergreens, and all the gold he wanted. 9:12 When Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the cities Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. 143 9:13 Hiram asked, 144 “Why did you give me these cities, my friend 145 ?” He called that area the region of Cabul, a name which it has retained to this day. 146 9:14 Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talents 147 of gold.
9:15 Here are the details concerning the work crews 148 King Solomon conscripted 149 to build the Lord’s temple, his palace, the terrace, the wall of Jerusalem, 150 and the cities of 151 Hazor, 152 Megiddo, 153 and Gezer. 9:16 (Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer. He burned it and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city. He gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, who had married Solomon.) 9:17 Solomon built up Gezer, lower Beth Horon, 9:18 Baalath, Tadmor in the wilderness, 154 9:19 all the storage cities that belonged to him, 155 and the cities where chariots and horses were kept. 156 He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom. 157 9:20 Now several non-Israelite peoples were left in the land after the conquest of Joshua, including the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 158 9:21 Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out completely). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews, and they continue in that role to this very day. 159 9:22 Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; 160 the Israelites served as his soldiers, attendants, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces. 161 9:23 These men were also in charge of Solomon’s work projects; there were a total of 550 men who supervised the workers. 162 9:24 Solomon built the terrace as soon as Pharaoh’s daughter moved up from the city of David 163 to the palace Solomon built for her. 164
9:25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings 165 on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense along with them before the Lord. He made the temple his official worship place. 166
9:26 King Solomon also built ships 167 in Ezion Geber, which is located near Elat in the land of Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. 9:27 Hiram sent his fleet and some of his sailors, who were well acquainted with the sea, to serve with Solomon’s men. 168 9:28 They sailed 169 to Ophir, took from there four hundred twenty talents 170 of gold, and then brought them to King Solomon.
10:1 When the queen of Sheba heard about Solomon, 171 she came to challenge 172 him with difficult questions. 173 10:2 She arrived in Jerusalem 174 with a great display of pomp, 175 bringing with her camels carrying spices, 176 a very large quantity of gold, and precious gems. She visited Solomon and discussed with him everything that was on her mind. 10:3 Solomon answered all her questions; there was no question too complex for the king. 177 10:4 When the queen of Sheba saw for herself Solomon’s extensive wisdom, 178 the palace 179 he had built, 10:5 the food in his banquet hall, 180 his servants and attendants, 181 their robes, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he presented in the Lord’s temple, she was amazed. 182 10:6 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your wise sayings and insight 183 was true! 10:7 I did not believe these things until I came and saw them with my own eyes. Indeed, I didn’t hear even half the story! 184 Your wisdom and wealth 185 surpass what was reported to me. 10:8 Your attendants, who stand before you at all times and hear your wise sayings, are truly happy! 186 10:9 May the Lord your God be praised because he favored 187 you by placing you on the throne of Israel! Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he made you king so you could make just and right decisions.” 188 10:10 She gave the king 120 talents 189 of gold, a very large quantity of spices, and precious gems. The quantity of spices the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon has never been matched. 190 10:11 (Hiram’s fleet, which carried gold from Ophir, also brought from Ophir a very large quantity of fine timber and precious gems. 10:12 With the timber the king made supports 191 for the Lord’s temple and for the royal palace and stringed instruments 192 for the musicians. No one has seen so much of this fine timber to this very day. 193 ) 10:13 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she requested, besides what he had freely offered her. 194 Then she left and returned 195 to her homeland with her attendants.
10:14 Solomon received 666 talents 196 of gold per year, 197 10:15 besides what he collected from the merchants, 198 traders, Arabian kings, and governors of the land. 10:16 King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; 600 measures 199 of gold were used for each shield. 10:17 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; three minas 200 of gold were used for each of these shields. The king placed them in the Palace of the Lebanon Forest. 201
10:18 The king made a large throne decorated with ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. 10:19 There were six steps leading up to the throne, and the back of it was rounded on top. The throne had two armrests with a statue of a lion standing on each side. 202 10:20 There were twelve statues of lions on the six steps, one lion at each end of each step. There was nothing like it in any other kingdom. 203
10:21 All of King Solomon’s cups were made of gold, and all the household items in the Palace of the Lebanon Forest were made of pure gold. There were no silver items, for silver was not considered very valuable in Solomon’s time. 204 10:22 Along with Hiram’s fleet, the king had a fleet of large merchant ships 205 that sailed the sea. Once every three years the fleet 206 came into port with cargoes of 207 gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. 208
10:23 King Solomon was wealthier and wiser than any of the kings of the earth. 209 10:24 Everyone 210 in the world wanted to visit Solomon to see him display his God-given wisdom. 211 10:25 Year after year visitors brought their gifts, which included items of silver, items of gold, clothes, perfume, spices, horses, and mules. 212
10:26 Solomon accumulated 213 chariots and horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He kept them in assigned cities and in Jerusalem. 214 10:27 The king made silver as plentiful 215 in Jerusalem as stones; cedar was 216 as plentiful as sycamore fig trees are in the lowlands. 217 10:28 Solomon acquired his horses from Egypt 218 and from Que; the king’s traders purchased them from Que. 10:29 They paid 600 silver pieces for each chariot from Egypt and 150 silver pieces for each horse. They also sold chariots and horses to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria. 219