1 Kings 9

1 When Solomon had finished the building of the LORD’s house, the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do,

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

2 The LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

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

3 The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

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.

4 As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances,

“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,

5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised to David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man on the throne of Israel.’

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

6 But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

“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,

7 then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword amongst all peoples.

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.

8 Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?’

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?’

9 and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshipped them, and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this evil on them.’”

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.’”

10 At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the LORD’s house and the king’s house

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

11 (now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and cypress trees, and with gold, according to all his desire), King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

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.

12 Hiram came out of Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they didn’t please him.

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

13 He said, “What cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” He called them the land of Cabul to this day.

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

14 Hiram sent to the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

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

15 This is the reason of the forced labour which King Solomon conscripted: to build the LORD’s house, his own house, Millo, Jerusalem’s wall, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

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.

16 Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, taken Gezer, burnt it with fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

[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.

17 Solomon built in the land Gezer, Beth Horon the lower,

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

18 Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness,

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

19 all the storage cities that Solomon had, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

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.

20 As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel—

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.

21 their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy—of them Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day.

[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.

22 But of the children of Israel Solomon made no bondservants; but they were the men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

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.

23 These were the five hundred and fifty chief officers who were over Solomon’s work, who ruled over the people who laboured in the work.

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

24 But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of David’s city to her house which Solomon had built for her. Then he built Millo.

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.

25 Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to the LORD three times per year, burning incense with them on the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.

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.

26 King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Sea of Suf, in the land of Edom.

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.

27 Hiram sent in the fleet his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

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

28 They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.

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