God Appears to Solomon

(2 Chronicles 7:11-22)

1Later, after Solomon had finished building the LORD’s Temple, the royal palace, and everything else that Solomon wanted to do, 2the LORD appeared to Solomon for a second time, just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3The LORD told him:

“I’ve heard your prayer and your request that you made to me. I have consecrated this Temple that you have built by placing my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there continuously.

4“Now as for you, if you commune with me like your father did, with an upright heart of integrity and doing everything that I’ve commanded you and keeping my statutes and ordinances, 5then I’ll make your royal throne secure forever, just as I agreed to do so for your father David when I said, ‘You are to not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6But if you or your descendants abandon me, and do not keep my commandments and statutes that I have given to you, and if you go away, serve other gods, and worship them, 7then I will eliminate Israel from the land that I gave them and from the Temple that I’ve consecrated for my name. I will throw them out of my sight, and Israel will become the butt of jokesa and a means of ridicule among people worldwide!

8“This Temple will become a pile of ruins. Everyone who passes by it will be so astounded that they will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do this to this land and to this Temple?’ 9They will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and served them. That’s why the Lord has brought all of this disaster on them.’”

Solomon Cedes Cities to Hiram

10It took 20 years for Solomon to finish working on the two houses—the LORD’s Temple and the royal palace— 11after which King Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee, because King Hiram of Tyre had provided Solomon with as much cedar, cypress timber, and gold that he wanted. 12Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, but he wasn’t happy with them, 13so he asked him, “What are these cities that you have given to me, my brother?” That’s why these cities were named “the land of Cabal”b to this day. 14Then Hiram paid the king 120 talentsc of gold.

Solomon’s Other Accomplishments

(2 Chronicles 8:3-16)

15Here is a summary of the conscripted labor that King Solomon required to build the LORD’s Temple, his royal palace, the terrace ramparts in the City of David,d the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, burned it down, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and then gave it as a dowry for his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, lower Beth-horon, 18Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, 19along with the storage cities that Solomon used for his chariots and for his cavalry, everything that Solomon felt like building in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in every territory under his control.

20The people who survived from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not related to the Israelis, 21and whose descendants had survived them and continued to live in the land because the Israelis were unable to completely eliminate them, Solomon placed under conscripted labor, a situation that remains in effect to this day. 22However, Solomon did not force Israelis into conscripted labor, but they did serve as his soldiers, servants, princes, captains, chariot commanders, and cavalry. 23There were 550 chief officers who supervised Solomon’s activities and managed the staff that was doing the work.

24As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter arrived from the City of David to live in her house that Solomone had built for her, then he fortified the terrace ramparts in the City of David.f 25Three times every year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he had built to the LORD, burning incense with the offerings in the presence of the Lord.

This concludes the record of the Temple construction.

Solomon’s Business Ventures

(2 Chronicles 8:17-18)

26King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Reedg Sea in the land of Edom. 27Hiram sent his servants to sail with the fleet, since they were expert seamen, and so they accompanied Solomon’s servants. 28They sailed as far as Ophirh and brought back 420 talentsi of gold for Solomon.