1 Kings 9-10

New Life Version

The Lord Comes to Solomon the Second Time

9 Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that he wanted to build. ² Then the Lord came to Solomon a second time, as He had come to him at Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer which you have prayed to Me. I have set apart this house you have built by putting My name there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there always. ⁴ As for you, walk before Me as your father David walked, with a true heart doing what is right. Do all that I have told you. Obey My Laws. If you do, ⁵ then I will make the throne of your rule over Israel last forever. It will be just as I promised your father David, saying, ‘You will never be without a man on the throne of Israel.’ ⁶ But if you or your sons turn away from following Me, and do not keep My Laws which I have given you, and go after other gods and worship them, if you do, ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them. And I will put away from My eyes the house which I have set apart for My name. Israel will become a word of shame among all peoples. ⁸ This house will be broken to pieces. Everyone who passes by will be surprised and make a sound of wonder, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house?’ ⁹ And they will say, ‘Because they turned away from the Lord their God, Who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt. They took in other gods and worshiped them and served them. So the Lord has brought all this trouble upon them.’”

Solomon and Hiram

¹⁰ At the end of twenty years, Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house. ¹¹ Hiram king of Tyre had given Solomon all the cedar and cypress trees and gold that he wanted. Then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. ¹² But when Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities Solomon had given him, they did not please him. ¹³ He said, “What are these cities you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day. ¹⁴ The gold Hiram sent to the king weighed as much as 120 men.

Other Things Solomon Did

¹⁵ Now King Solomon made men work to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Meggido and Gezer. ¹⁶ For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burned it with fire. He killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and then gave it as a wedding-gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷ So Solomon built Gezer again, and the lower part of Beth-horon, ¹⁸ and Baalath and Tamar in the desert, in the land of Judah. ¹⁹ Solomon built all the store-cities that he had, the cities for his war-wagons, the cities for his horsemen, and all he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land under his rule. ²⁰ Now there were people left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel. ²¹ And their children were left after them in the land. The people of Israel were not able to destroy all of them. So Solomon made these people work for him, even to this day. ²² But Solomon did not make the people of Israel work for him. For they were men of war, his servants, his rulers, his captains, his war-wagon drivers, and his horsemen.

²³ These were the heads of the captains over Solomon’s work. There were 550 of them who ruled over the people doing the work.

²⁴ But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house which Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

²⁵ Three times a year Solomon gave burnt gifts and peace gifts on the altar he built to the Lord. He burned special perfume on the altar before the Lord. So he finished the house.

²⁶ King Solomon built a group of ships in Ezion-geber, near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ²⁷ Hiram sent his servants with the ships, sailors who knew the sea. He sent them with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸ They went to Ophir and brought out gold weighing as much as 420 small men. And they brought it to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

10 When the queen of Sheba heard about the wisdom Solomon had from the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. ² She came to Jerusalem and many people came with her. She brought camels carrying spices and much gold and stones of much worth. When she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. ³ And Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from the king which he could not make plain to her. ⁴ The queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the house he had built, ⁵ the food on his table, and his many servants seated to eat. She saw those who brought the food and how they were dressed, and those who carried his cups. She saw the steps by which he went up to the house of the Lord. And there was no more spirit in her. ⁶ She said to the king, “The news was true that I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. ⁷ But I did not believe the news until I came. Now my eyes have seen it. And half of it was not told to me. You have more wisdom and riches than I heard you had. ⁸ How happy are your men! How happy are these your servants who stand in front of you always and hear your wisdom! ⁹ Thanks be to the Lord your God Who was pleased with you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, He has made you king, to do what is fair and right and good.” ¹⁰ Then she gave the king gold weighing as much as 120 small men. She gave him a very large amount of spices and stones of much worth. Never again did so much spices come in as that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹ The ships of Hiram brought from Ophir gold and very many almug trees and stones of much worth. ¹² The king used the almug trees to make pillars for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house. And he used them to make different kinds of harps for the singers. No such almug trees have come in again or have been seen to this day.

¹³ King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she wanted, whatever she asked, as well as his gifts to her from the king’s riches. Then she and her servants returned to her own land.

Solomon’s Riches

¹⁴ The gold which came in to Solomon in one year weighed as much as 666 small men, ¹⁵ besides all the gold that came from the traders and all the kings of the Arabs and the leaders of the country. ¹⁶ King Solomon made 200 large body coverings for battle of beaten gold. For each covering he used 600 pieces of gold. ¹⁷ And he made 300 coverings of beaten gold, using 150 pieces of gold on each covering. The king put them in the house among the trees of Lebanon. ¹⁸ Then the king made a large throne of ivory and covered it with fine gold. ¹⁹ The throne had six steps, and a round top at its back. There were arms on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms. ²⁰ Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one on each end. Nothing like it was made for any other king. ²¹ All of King Solomon’s cups were made of gold. And all the cups of the house among the trees of Lebanon were made of pure gold. None of them were made of silver. Silver was not thought of as being of much worth in the days of Solomon. ²² For the king had a group of ships of Tarshish at sea with the ships of Hiram. Every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks.

²³ So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. ²⁴ They came from all over the earth to see Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. ²⁵ Every one of them brought his gift. They brought objects of silver and gold, clothing, objects for fighting in battle, spices, horses and donkeys, so much year by year.

²⁶ Solomon gathered war-wagons and horsemen. He had 1,400 war-wagons and 12,000 horsemen. He kept them in the war-wagon cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁷ The king made silver as easy to find as stones in Jerusalem. He made cedar trees as easy to find as the sycamore trees of the valley. ²⁸ Solomon had horses brought from Egypt and Kue. The king’s traders bought them from Kue, each for a price. ²⁹ A war-wagon could be brought from Egypt for 600 pieces of silver, and a horse for 150 pieces of silver. They got them in the same way for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.