1Ki 9 | LSB | STEP | Now it happened when Solomon had completed building the house of Yahweh, and the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to do,

1 Kings 9

Yahweh Appears to Solomon

1 Now it happened when Solomon had completed building the house of Yahweh, and the king’s house, and all ^{▼▼Lit Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do}that Solomon desired to do, 2 that Yahweh appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 And Yahweh said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have set apart as holy this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 4 As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My judgments, 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I ^{▼▼Lit spoke}promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not have a man cut off from the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have given before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have set apart as holy for My name, I will ^{▼▼Lit send}cast out of My presence. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become ^{▼▼Heb high}a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will feel desolate and hiss and say, ‘Why has Yahweh done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 And they will say, ‘Because they forsook Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore Yahweh has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”

Cities Given to Hiram

10 Now it happened that at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Yahweh and the king’s house 11 (Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold according to all his desire), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 So Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they were not right in his eyes. 13 And he said, “What are these cities which you have given me, my brother?” So ^{▼▼Lit he called them}they were called the land of ^{▼▼Lit as good as nothing}Cabul to this day. 14 And Hiram sent to the king ^{▼▼Approx. 4.5 tons or 4 metric tons, a talent was approx. 75 lb. or 34 kg}120 talents of gold.

Solomon Builds Cities and Ships

15 Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon raised up to build the house of Yahweh, his own house, the ^{▼▼Citadel}Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16 For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17 So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and the lower Beth-horon 18 and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, 19 and all the storage cities which Solomon had, and the cities for ^{▼▼Lit the}his chariots, and the cities for ^{▼▼Lit the}his horsemen, and ^{▼▼Lit the desire of Solomon which he desired to build in Jerusalem}all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land ^{▼▼Lit of}under his rule. 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 sons of Israel, 21 namely, their sons who were left after them in the land whom the sons of Israel were unable to devote to destruction, from them Solomon raised up forced laborers to this day. 22 But Solomon did not make slaves of the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen.

23 These were the ^{▼▼Or officers of the deputies}chief deputies who were over Solomon’s work, 550, who had dominion over the people doing the work.

24 As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her, then he built the Millo.

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

26 King Solomon also made a fleet of ships in Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the ^{▼▼Lit Sea of Reeds}Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent his servants with the fleet of ships, sailors who knew the sea, along with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they went to Ophir and took from there 420 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.