1 Kings 9

1 After Solomon’s [workers] had finished building the temple and his palace and everything else that Solomon wanted them to build,

Now it happened that, when Solomon had perfected the building of the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that he had desired and had willed to do,

2 Yahweh appeared to him [in a dream] a second time, like he had appeared to him at [the city of] Gibeon.

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

3 Yahweh said to him, “I heard what you prayed and what you pleaded for me to do. I have set apart/dedicated this temple which your [workers] have built to be the place where people will worship me forever. I will always watch over it and protect it.

And the Lord said to him: “I have heard your prayer and your petition, which you prayed before me. I have sanctified this house, which you have built, so that I may place my name there forever, and so that my eyes and my heart will be there for all days.

4 “And as for you, if you conduct your life as I want you to, like your father David did, and if you very sincerely obey all the statutes and laws that I have commanded you to obey,

Also, if you will walk before me, just as your father walked, in simplicity of heart and in equity, and you do all that I have instructed to you, and you keep my laws and my judgments,

5 I will do what I promised your father that I would do: I promised him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants.

then I will set the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised your father David, saying: ‘A man from your stock shall not be taken away from the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if you or your descendants turn away from me and disobey the commands and decrees that I have given to you, and if you start to worship other gods,

But if you and your sons, wandering, will have turned away, not following me, and not keeping my commandments and my ceremonies, which I have proposed to you, but instead you go away, and you serve strange gods and adore them,

7 I will remove my Israeli people from the land that I have given to them. I will also abandon this temple that I have set apart/dedicated to be the place where people should worship me. Then people everywhere will despise [the people of] Israel and make fun of them.

then I will take away Israel from the face of the land, which I have given to them. And the temple, which I have sanctified to my name, I will cast out from my sight. And Israel will be a proverb and a parable among all the peoples.

8 This temple will become a heap of ruins. Everyone who passes by will be astonished [when they see it], and they will be shocked and say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this temple?’

And this house will become an example: anyone who passes by it will be stupefied, and he will hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord acted in this way to this land and to this house?’

9 And other people will reply, ‘It happened because the Israeli people abandoned Yahweh their God, the one who brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They started to accept and worship other gods. And that is why Yahweh has caused them to experience all these disasters.’”

And they will respond: ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who led their fathers away from the land of Egypt, and they followed strange gods, and they adored them and served them. For this reason, the Lord led all this evil over them.’”

10 Solomon’s [workers] labored for 20 years to build the temple and the palace.

Then, when twenty years were fulfilled, after Solomon had built the two houses, that is, the house of the Lord, and the house of the king,

11 Hiram, the king of Tyre had [arranged for his workers to] give Solomon all the cedar and pine [logs] and all the gold that he needed [for this work]. After it was all finished, King Solomon gave to Hiram 20 cities in the Galilee region.

Hiram, the king of Tyre, having supplied Solomon with cedar wood, and spruce wood, and gold, in accord with all that he needed, then Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee.

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

And Hiram went out of Tyre, so that he might view the towns that Solomon had given to him. And they did not please him.

13 He said to Solomon, “My friend, those cities that you gave me are worthless!” So, that area is still called ‘Worthless’.

And he said, “Are these the cities that you have given to me, brother?” And he called them the land of Cabul, even to this day.

14 Hiram paid Solomon only five tons of gold [for those cities].

And Hiram sent to king Solomon one hundred twenty talents of gold.

15 This is a record of the work that King Solomon forced men to do. He forced them to build the temple and his palace and the terraces/landfills [on the east side of the city], and the wall around Jerusalem, and [to rebuild the cities of] Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.

This is the sum of the expenses that king Solomon offered for the building of the house of the Lord, and his own house, and for Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

16 [The reason they needed to rebuild Gezer was that the army of] the king of Egypt had attacked Gezer and captured it. Then they had burned [the houses in] the city and killed all the people of the Canaan people-group who lived there. The king of Egypt gave that city to his daughter as a gift when she married Solomon.

Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, ascended and seized Gezer, and he burned it with fire. And he put to death the Canaanite who was living in the city, and he gave it as a dowry for his daughter, the wife of Solomon.

17 So Solomon’s workers also rebuilt Gezer, and they also rebuilt Lower Beth-Horon [city].

Therefore, Solomon built up Gezer, and lower Beth-horon,

18 They also rebuilt Baalath and Tamar [towns] in the desert in [the southern part of] Judah.

and Baalath, and Palmira in the land of the wilderness.

19 They also built cities where they kept the supplies for Solomon, the places where his horses and chariots were kept. They also built everything else that Solomon wanted them to build, in Jerusalem and in Lebanon, and in other places in the area over which he ruled.

And all the towns which belonged to him, and which were without walls, he walled, along with the cities of the chariots, and the cities of the horsemen, and whatever was pleasing to him that he might build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in the entire land of his dominion.

20 There were many people who belonged to the Amor people-group, the Heth people-group, the Periz people-group, the Hiv people-group, and the Jebus people-group who were not killed when the Israelis captured their land.

All the people who had remained of the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel,

21 [Their descendants still lived in Israel]. It was those people whom Solomon forced to become his slaves [to build all those places], and they are still slaves.

their sons, who had remained in the land, namely, those whom the sons of Israel had not been able to destroy, Solomon made tributary, even to this day.

22 But Solomon did not force any Israeli people to become slaves. Some Israelis became soldiers and army officers and commanders and drivers of his chariots and soldiers who rode on horses.

But from the sons of Israel, Solomon did not appoint anyone at all to serve, except the men of war, and his ministers, and leaders, and commanders, and the overseers of the chariots and the horses.

23 There were 550 officials who supervised the slaves who worked [to build all those places].

Now there were five hundred fifty leaders in the first place over all the works of Solomon, and they had people subject to them, and these were given orders for the appointed works.

24 After [Solomon’s wife, who was] the daughter of the king of Egypt, moved from [the place outside Jerusalem called] ‘The City of David’ to the palace that Solomon’s workers built for her, Solomon [told his workers to] fill in the slopes on the east side of the city.

And the daughter of Pharaoh went up from the city of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her. Then he built up Millo.

25 Three times each year Solomon [brought to the temple] offerings that were completely burned [on the altar] and offerings to restore fellowship with Yahweh. He also brought incense to be burned in the presence of Yahweh. And so his men finished building the temple.

Also, three times each year, Solomon offered holocausts and victims of peace offerings, upon the altar that he had built to the Lord, and he burned incense before the Lord. And the temple was perfected.

26 King Solomon’s [workers] also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber [city], which is near Elath [city], on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land belonging to the Edom people-group.

And king Solomon made a navy at Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shores of the Red Sea, in the land of Idumea.

27 [King] Hiram sent some very expert sailors to work on the ships with Solomon’s workers.

And Hiram sent his servants to that navy, the sailors and those knowledgeable about the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

28 They sailed to [the] Ophir [region] and brought back to Solomon about 16 tons of gold.

And when they had gone to Ophir, taking from there four hundred twenty talents of gold, they brought it to king Solomon.