Add parallel Print Page Options

As soon as Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the entirely burned offering and the sacrifices, while the Lord’s glory filled the temple. The priests were unable to enter the Lord’s temple because the Lord’s glory had filled the Lord’s temple. All the Israelites were watching when the fire fell. As the Lord’s glory filled the temple, they knelt down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, worshipping and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, “Yes, God is good! Yes, God’s faithful love lasts forever!”

Then the king and all the people sacrificed to the Lord. King Solomon sacrificed twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep when the king and all the people dedicated God’s temple. The priests stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the Lord’s musical instruments, which King David had made for giving thanks to the Lord, saying, “Yes, God’s faithful love lasts forever!” and which David had used when he gave praise. Across from them, the priests were blowing trumpets while all Israel was standing.

Solomon also dedicated the middle of the courtyard in front of the Lord’s temple. He had to offer the entirely burned offerings and the fat of the well-being sacrifices there because the bronze altar Solomon had made was too small to contain the entirely burned offerings, the grain offerings, and the pieces of fat.

At that time Solomon, together with all Israel, celebrated the festival for seven days. It was a very large assembly that came from Lebo-hamath to the border[a] of Egypt. On the eighth day there was a gathering. They had dedicated the altar for seven days and celebrated the festival for another seven days. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month,[b] Solomon dismissed the people to their tents, happy and content because of the goodness the Lord had shown to David, to Solomon, and to his people Israel. 11 In this way, Solomon finished the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He successfully accomplished everything he intended for the Lord’s temple and his own palace.

Solomon again meets God

12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place as my house of sacrifice. 13 When I close the sky so that there is no rain or I order the locusts to consume the land or I send a plague against my people, 14 if my people who belong to me will humbly pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. 15 From now on my eyes will be open and my ears will pay attention to the prayers offered in this place, 16 because I have chosen this temple and declared it holy so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. 17 As for you, if you will walk before me just as your father David did, doing all that I have commanded you and keeping my regulations and case laws, 18 then I will establish your royal throne, just as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a successor ruling in Israel. 19 But if any of you ever turn away from and abandon the regulations and commands that I have given you, and go to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot you[c] from my land that I gave you, and I will reject this temple that I made holy for my name. I will make it a joke, insulted by everyone. 21 Everyone who passes by this temple—so lofty now—will be shocked and will wonder, Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and temple? 22 The answer will come, Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods, worshipping and serving them. This is why God brought all this disaster on them.

Solomon’s buildings and prosperity

After twenty years of building the Lord’s temple and his royal palace, Solomon next rebuilt the cities Huram had given him, and he settled Israelites there.

Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and seized it. He fortified Tadmor in the wilderness, along with all the storage cities he had built in Hamath. Solomon also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon as fortress cities with walls, gates, and crossbars; Baalath; all the cities he used for storage; and all the cities used for chariots and cavalry—along with everything else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his kingdom.

Any non-Israelite people who remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites— that is, the descendants of such people who were still in the land because the Israelites weren’t able to destroy them—Solomon forced into the labor gangs that are still in existence today. However, Solomon didn’t force the Israelites to work as slaves; instead, they became warriors, chief officers, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry. 10 And Solomon had two hundred fifty chief officers[d] who were in charge of the people.

11 Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter from David’s City to a palace he had built for her, because he said, “My wife mustn’t live in the palace of Israel’s King David, because the places where the Lord’s chest has been are holy.”

12 Then Solomon offered entirely burned offerings to the Lord on the Lord’s altar that Solomon had built in front of the porch, 13 as each day required, according to the commandment of Moses for sabbaths, new moon festivals, and the three annual festivals—Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Booths. 14 Just as his father David had ordered, Solomon set up the divisions of the priests for their services and the Levites to their posts for offering praise and ministering in front of the priests, doing what needed to be done each day; as well as the gatekeepers in their divisions at each gate, because this was what David the man of God had commanded. 15 They didn’t deviate in any way from the king’s commands concerning the priests, the Levites, or the treasuries. 16 All Solomon’s work was carried out from the day the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid until its completion. Then the Lord’s temple was completely finished.

17 Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Eloth on the coast in the land of Edom. 18 Huram had his servants bring ships to Solomon, along with crews of expert sailors. They went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir and imported four hundred fifty kikkars of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 7:8 Or Wadi, traditionally Brook
  2. 2 Chronicles 7:10 September–October, Tishrei
  3. 2 Chronicles 7:20 Or Israel (or them)
  4. 2 Chronicles 8:10 Qere; Kethib officers of the troops

Bible Gateway Recommends