2 Chronicles 7-8

Complete Jewish Bible

7 When Shlomo had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Adonai filled the house, ² so that the cohanim could not enter the house of Adonai; because the glory of Adonai filled Adonai’s house. ³ All the people of Isra’el saw when the fire came down, and the glory of Adonai was on the house; they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the flooring; prostrating themselves, they gave thanks to Adonai, “for he is good, for his grace continues forever.”

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before Adonai. ⁵ King Shlomo offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶ The cohanim stood at their appointed stations, while the L’vi’im used the instruments that David the king had provided for making music to Adonai in order to “give thanks to Adonai, for his grace continues forever,” by means of the praises David had composed. Opposite them the cohanim sounded trumpets; and all Isra’el stood up. ⁷ Shlomo also consecrated the center of the courtyard in front of the house of Adonai; because he had to offer the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings there. For the bronze altar which Shlomo had made could not receive the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat. ⁸ So Shlomo celebrated the festival at that time for seven days, together with all Isra’el, an enormous gathering; [they had come all the way] from the entrance of Hamat to the Vadi [of Egypt]. ⁹ On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, having observed the dedication of the altar for seven days and the festival for seven days. ¹⁰ Then, on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents full of joy and glad of heart for all the goodness Adonai had shown to David, to Shlomo and to Isra’el his people.

¹¹ Thus Shlomo finished the house of Adonai and the royal palace. Everything that Shlomo had set his heart on making in the house of Adonai and in his own palace he accomplished successfully.

¹² Adonai appeared to Shlomo by night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³ If I shut up the sky, so that there is no rain; or if I order locusts to devour the land; or if I send an epidemic of sickness among my people; ¹⁴ then, if my people, who bear my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears will pay attention to the prayer made in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and consecrated this house, so that my name can be there forever; my eyes and heart will always be there. ¹⁷ As for you, if you will live in my presence, as did David your father, doing everything I have ordered you to do, and keeping my laws and rulings; ¹⁸ then I will establish the throne of your rulership, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You will never lack a man to be ruler in Isra’el.’ ¹⁹ But if you turn away and abandon my regulations and mitzvot which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, worshipping them; ²⁰ then I will pull them up by the roots out of the land I have given them. This house, which I consecrated for my name, I will eject from my sight; and I will make it an example to avoid and an object of scorn among all peoples. ²¹ This house, now so exalted — everyone passing by will be shocked at the sight of it and will ask, ‘Why has Adonai done this to this land and to this house?’ ²² But the answer will be, ‘It’s because they abandoned Adonai the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of other gods, worshipping and serving them; this is why [Adonai] brought all these calamities on them.’”

8 At the end of twenty years, during which time Shlomo had built the house of Adonai and his own palace, ² Shlomo built up the cities which Huram had given to Shlomo and had the people of Isra’el live there.

³ Then Shlomo attacked Hamat-Tzovah and defeated it. ⁴ He built Tadmor in the desert and all the cities for storing supplies that he built in Hamat. ⁵ He also built Upper Beit-Horon and Lower Beit-Horon, fortified cities with walls, gates and bars; ⁶ Ba‘alat; and all the cities that Shlomo had for storing supplies, all the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and all the other buildings Shlomo wanted to build in Yerushalayim, in the L’vanon and throughout the land he ruled.

⁷ As for all the people still left from the Hitti, Emori, P’rizi, Hivi, and Y’vusi, who were not part of Isra’el, ⁸ from their descendants remaining after them in the land, whom the people of Isra’el did not exterminate — from them Shlomo levied [his forced laborers], as it is to this day. ⁹ But Shlomo did not raise any of his slaves from the people of Isra’el; rather, these were the soldiers, his chief commanders, and the officials in charge of his chariots and horsemen. ¹⁰ King Shlomo had 250 chief officers in charge of the people.

¹¹ Shlomo brought up Pharaoh’s daughter from the City of David to the house he had built for her; because he said, “No wife of mine is going to live in the house of David king of Isra’el, since the [buildings] where the ark of Adonai has been are holy.”

¹² Then Shlomo offered burnt offerings to Adonai on the altar of Adonai that he had built in front of the vestibule, ¹³ as each day required, offering according to the mitzvah of Moshe on Shabbats, at Rosh-Hodesh and at the designated times three times a year — the festivals of Matzah, Shavu‘ot and Sukkot. ¹⁴ As David his father had ordered, he appointed the divisions of the cohanim for their service and the L’vi’im to their tasks — to praise and to perform their service in the presence of the cohanim according to each day’s requirements. He also appointed the gatekeepers by their divisions to be at every gate, for David the man of God had so ordered. ¹⁵ They did not deviate from the king’s order to the cohanim and L’vi’im in any matter or in regard to the supplies. ¹⁶ All the work of Shlomo was organized in this way from the day ground was broken for the house of Adonai until everything had been accomplished, and the house of Adonai had been completed.

¹⁷ Shlomo went to ‘Etzyon-Gever and Elot on the shore of the sea in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ Huram sent some of his servants with ships, and others that were experienced sailors who understood the sea; they went with Shlomo’s servants to Ofir and took from there fifteen tons of gold, which they brought back to King Shlomo.