³⁴ The Amorites^(A) confined the Danites^(B) to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain.^{(C) 35} And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres,^(D) Aijalon^(E) and Shaalbim,^(F) but when the power of the tribes of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor. ³⁶ The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion Pass^(G) to Sela^(H) and beyond.^(I)

3 These are the nations the Lord left to test^(A) all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan ² (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): ³ the five^(B) rulers of the Philistines,^(C) all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites^(D) living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon^(E) to Lebo Hamath.^(F)

⁵ The Israelites lived^(A) among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites,^(B) Hivites and Jebusites.^{(C) 6} They took their daughters^(D) in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.^(E)

Othniel

⁷ The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord^(F) their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.^{(G) 8} The anger of the Lord burned against Israel so that he sold^(H) them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim^(I) king of Aram Naharaim,^[a](J) to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.

¹⁴ The towns from Ekron^(A) to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to Israel, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.^(B)

² The king summoned the Gibeonites^(A) and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.)

The Lord Appears to Solomon^(A)

9 When Solomon had finished^(B) building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, ² the Lord appeared^(C) to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him:

Solomon’s Other Activities^(W)

¹⁰ At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the Lord and the royal palace— ¹¹ King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold^(X) he wanted. ¹² But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. ¹³ “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul,^[d](Y) a name they have to this day. ¹⁴ Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents^[e] of gold.^(Z)

¹⁵ Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted^(AA) to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the terraces,^[f](AB) the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor,^(AC) Megiddo and Gezer.^{(AD) 16} (Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter,^(AE) Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷ And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon,^{(AF) 18} Baalath,^(AG) and Tadmor^[g] in the desert, within his land, ¹⁹ as well as all his store cities^(AH) and the towns for his chariots^(AI) and for his horses^[h]—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

²⁰ There were still people left from the Amorites, Hittites,^(AJ) Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites^(AK) (these peoples were not Israelites). ²¹ Solomon conscripted the descendants^(AL) of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminate^[i](AM)—to serve as slave labor,^(AN) as it is to this day. ²² But Solomon did not make slaves^(AO) of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers. ²³ They were also the chief officials^(AP) in charge of Solomon’s projects—550 officials supervising those who did the work.

²⁴ After Pharaoh’s daughter^(AQ) had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the terraces.^(AR)

²⁵ Three^(AS) times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.

²⁶ King Solomon also built ships^(AT) at Ezion Geber,^(AU) which is near Elath^(AV) in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.^{[j] 27} And Hiram sent his men—sailors^(AW) who knew the sea—to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men. ²⁸ They sailed to Ophir^(AX) and brought back 420 talents^[k] of gold,^(AY) which they delivered to King Solomon.