1 Kings
Chapter 9
1 When Solomon finished building God’s house, his own palace, and everything he wanted to do,
2 God appeared to Solomon again, just as he had at Gibeon.
3 God said to him, “I have heard your prayer and plea that you made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to place my name there forever; and my eyes and heart will always be there.”
4 If you walk before me like your father David did, with a pure heart and honesty, doing all I have told you and following my rules and decisions:
5 I will make sure your kingdom’s throne in Israel lasts forever, just like I promised your father David, when I said, “Your throne in Israel will always have a man to rule.”
6 If you turn away from following me, you or your children, and do not obey my commands and laws I gave you, but follow and worship other gods:
7 I will remove Israel from the land I gave them; and this temple I made holy for my name, I will reject; and Israel will become an example and a common saying among all nations.
8 At this tall house, everyone passing by will be shocked and will hiss. They will ask, “Why did God do this to the land and to this house?”
9 They will say, ‘Because they left God, who freed their ancestors from Egypt, and followed other gods, worshiping and serving them, that’s why God let all this bad happen to them.’
10 After twenty years, when Solomon finished building the two buildings, God’s house and the king’s house,
11 King Solomon gave King Hiram of Tyre twenty cities in Galilee because Hiram had provided Solomon with cedar and fir trees, and gold, as much as he wanted.
12 Hiram left Tyre to see the towns that Solomon gave him, but he did not like them.
13 He asked, “What are these towns you’ve given me, my brother?” He named the area Cabul, a name it still has today.
14 Hiram sent the king 120 talents of gold.
15 This is why King Solomon collected taxes: to build God’s house, his palace, Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16 The king of Egypt, Pharaoh, attacked and captured Gezer, burned it, killed the Canaanites living there, and gave it as a gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.
17 Solomon built Gezer and lower Bethhoron.
18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, in the country,
19 Solomon had many storage cities, cities for his chariots, cities for his horsemen, and whatever he wanted to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his lands.
20 And all the people remaining from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites,
21 The children who remained in the land after them, whom the Israelites could not completely destroy, Solomon made those pay forced labor taxes that continue to this day.
22 Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites; instead, they were soldiers, servants, leaders, commanders, chariot officers, and horsemen.
23 These were the top supervisors for Solomon’s projects, 550, who managed the workers.
24 Pharaoh’s daughter left David’s city and went to the house that Solomon built for her; then he built Millo.
25 Solomon made burnt sacrifices and peace sacrifices on the altar he made for God three times a year, and he burned incense on the altar in front of God. So he completed the temple.
26 King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Eziongeber, near Eloth, on the coast of the Red Sea, in Edom’s territory.
27 Hiram sent his sailors, who knew the sea well, with Solomon’s servants on the ships.
28 They went to Ophir, got 420 talents of gold, and brought it to King Solomon.