The Lord Appears to Solomon Again^(A)

9 Solomon finished building the ·Temple [^Lhouse] of the Lord and ·his royal palace [^Lthe king’s house] and everything he wanted to build. ² Then the Lord appeared to him ·again [^La second time] just as he had done before, in Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him: “I have heard your prayer and ·what you have asked me to do [^Lpleas/requests/supplications that you made before me]. I have ·made this Temple holy [^Lconsecrated this house] that you built, and I ·will be worshiped there [^Lhave put my name there] forever. ·I will watch over it and protect it always [^LMy eyes and my heart will be there all the days].

⁴ “But you must ·serve [walk before; follow] me as your father David did; ·he was fair and sincere […with integrity of heart and godliness/uprightness]. You must obey all I have commanded and keep my ·laws [statutes; decrees] and ·rules [regulations; judgments]. ⁵ If you do, I will ·make your kingdom strong [^Lestablish the throne of your kingdom]. This is the promise I made to your father David—·that someone from his family would always rule [you will never lack a man/successor on the throne of] Israel [2 Sam. 7:16].

⁶ “But if you and your children do not follow me and obey the laws and ·commands [decrees] I have given you, and if you serve ·or [and] worship other gods, ⁷ I will ·force Israel to leave [banish/^Lcut off Israel from] the land I have given them, and I will ·leave [reject; disown; remove from my sight] this ·Temple [^Lhouse] that I have ·made holy [^Lconsecrated for my name]. ·All the nations will make fun of Israel and speak evil about them [^LIsrael will become a byword/proverb among the nations/peoples]. ⁸ If the ·Temple is destroyed [^Lhouse becomes a heap of rubble], everyone who passes by will be ·shocked [astonished; appalled]. They will ·make fun of you [scoff; hiss] and ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this terrible thing to this land and this ·Temple [^Lhouse]?’ ⁹ People will answer, ‘This happened because they ·left [abandoned; deserted; forsook] the Lord their God. This was the God who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, but they ·decided to follow [embraced; adopted] other gods. They worshiped and served those gods, so the Lord brought all this ·disaster [adversity; calamity] on them.’”

Solomon’s Other Achievements^(B)

¹⁰ By the end of twenty years, King Solomon had built two buildings—the ·Temple [^Lhouse] of the Lord and the ·royal palace [^Lking’s house]. ¹¹ At that time King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had helped with the buildings. Hiram had given Solomon all the cedar, ·pine [juniper; cypress timber], and gold he wanted. ¹² So Hiram traveled from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, but when he saw them, he was not pleased. ¹³ He asked, “What ·good are these towns [kinds of towns have] you have given me, my brother?” So he named them the Land of ·Cabul [^Cmeaning “worthless”], and they are still called that today. ¹⁴ Hiram had sent Solomon ·about nine thousand pounds [^L120 talents] of gold.

¹⁵ This is the account of the forced labor Solomon ·used [conscripted] to build the ·Temple [^Lhouse] and ·the palace [^Lhis own house]. He had them fill in the ·land [terraces; ^Lthe Millo; ^Ca fortification of uncertain type] and build the ·wall [fortifications] around Jerusalem. He also had them rebuild the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶ (In the past Pharaoh, king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. After burning it, he killed the Canaanites who lived there. Then he gave it as a ·wedding present [dowry] to his daughter, who married Solomon. ¹⁷ So Solomon rebuilt it.) He also built the cities of Lower Beth Horon ¹⁸ and Baalath, as well as Tadmor, which is in the ·desert [wilderness]. ¹⁹ King Solomon also built ·cities for storing grain and supplies [supply centers/cities/towns] and ·cities for [towns to station] his chariots and horses. He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and everywhere he ruled.

²⁰ There were other people in the land who were not ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel]—Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ²¹ They were descendants of people that the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] had ·not destroyed [been unable to completely exterminate]. Solomon ·forced them to work for him as slaves [conscripted them for forced/slave labor], as is still true today. ²² But Solomon did not ·make slaves of [conscript] the Israelites. They were his soldiers, government ·leaders [officials], officers, captains, chariot commanders, and ·drivers [charioteers].

²³ These were his ·most important officers [chief officials] over the work. There were five hundred fifty supervisors over the people who did the work on Solomon’s projects.

²⁴ The daughter of ·the king of Egypt [^LPharaoh] moved from the old part of the City of David [^CJerusalem] to the ·palace [^Lhouse] that Solomon had built for her. Then Solomon ·filled in the surrounding land [built the terraces/Millo; 9:15].

²⁵ Three times each year Solomon offered whole burnt offerings and ·fellowship [or peace; well-being] offerings [Lev. 3:1] on the altar he had built for the Lord. He also burned incense before the Lord. So he finished the ·work on the Temple [^Lhouse].

²⁶ King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, a town near Elath on the shore of the ·Red Sea [or Sea of Reeds; Ex. 10:19], in the land of Edom. ²⁷ Hiram sent ·skilled sailors [^Lseamen who knew the sea] to serve in these ships with Solomon’s ·men [servants]. ²⁸ The ships sailed to Ophir and brought back ·about thirty-two thousand pounds [^L420 talents] of gold to King Solomon.