1 Kings 9:1-13 ▼

1 Later, after Solomon had finished building the LORD's Temple, the royal palace, and everything else that Solomon wanted to do,

2 the LORD appeared to Solomon for a second time, just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

3 The 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,

5 then 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.'

6 But 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,

7 then 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 jokes 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?'

9 They 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.'|

10 It took 20 years for Solomon to finish working on the two houses—the LORD's Temple and the royal palace—

11 after 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.

12 Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, but he wasn't happy with them,

13 so 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| to this day.