2 Chronicles 9-10

Common English Bible

Queen of Sheba

9 When the queen of Sheba heard reports about Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with riddles. Accompanying her was a huge entourage, with camels carrying spices, large amounts of gold, and precious stones. After she arrived, she told Solomon everything that was on her mind. ² Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for him to answer. ³ When the queen of Sheba saw how wise Solomon was, the palace he had built, ⁴ the food on his table, his servants’ quarters, the function and dress of his attendants, his cupbearers and their dress, and the entirely burned offerings he offered at the Lord’s temple,^[a] it took her breath away.

⁵ “The report I heard about your deeds and wisdom when I was still at home is true,” she said to the king. ⁶ “I didn’t believe it until I came and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, the half of it wasn’t told to me! You have far more than I was told. ⁷ Your people and these servants who continually serve you and get to listen to your wisdom are truly happy! ⁸ Bless the Lord your God because he was pleased to put you on the throne as king for the Lord your God. Because your God loved Israel and wanted to establish them forever, he has made you their king to uphold justice and righteousness.”

⁹ Then she gave the king one hundred twenty kikkars of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again has such a quantity of spice come to Israel as when the queen of Sheba gave this gift to King Solomon.

¹⁰ In addition, Huram’s servants and the servants of Solomon, who had brought gold back from Ophir, also brought algum wood and precious stones. ¹¹ The king made steps^[b] for the Lord’s temple and for the royal palace with the algum wood, as well as lyres and harps for the musicians. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah. ¹² King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted, even more than she had brought the king. Then she and her servants returned to her homeland.

Solomon’s wealth

¹³ Solomon received an annual income of six hundred sixty-six kikkars of gold, ¹⁴ not including income from the traders and merchants. All the Arabian kings and the governors of the land also brought Solomon gold and silver. ¹⁵ King Solomon made two hundred body-sized shields of hammered gold, using fifteen pounds^[c] of hammered gold in each shield; ¹⁶ and three hundred small shields of hammered gold, using seven and a half pounds^[d] of hammered gold in each shield. The king placed these in the Forest of Lebanon Palace.

¹⁷ The king also made a large ivory throne and covered it with pure gold. ¹⁸ Six steps led up to the throne, which had a gold footrest attached. Two lions stood beside the armrests on both sides of the throne. ¹⁹ Another twelve lions stood on both sides of the six steps. No other kingdom had anything like this.

²⁰ All King Solomon’s drinking cups were made of gold, and all the items in the Forest of Lebanon Palace were made of pure gold, not silver, since even silver wasn’t considered good enough in Solomon’s time! ²¹ The royal fleet sailed to Tarshish with the servants of Huram, returning once every three years with gold, silver, ivory, monkeys, and peacocks.^[e]

²² King Solomon far exceeded all the earth’s kings in wealth and wisdom, ²³ and kings of every nation wanted an audience with Solomon in order to hear his God-given wisdom. ²⁴ Year after year they came with tribute: objects of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁵ Solomon also had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, together with twelve thousand horsemen that he kept in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁶ He ruled all the kings from the Euphrates^[f] to the Philistines’ land and the border of Egypt. ²⁷ In Jerusalem, the king made silver as common as stones and cedar as common as sycamore trees that grow in the foothills. ²⁸ Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and every land.

Solomon’s remaining days

²⁹ The rest of Solomon’s deeds, from beginning to end, aren’t they written in the records of the prophet Nathan, the prophecies of Ahijah from Shiloh, and the visions of the seer Iddo concerning Jeroboam, Nebat’s son? ³⁰ Solomon ruled over all Israel in Jerusalem for forty years. ³¹ Solomon lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David’s City with his father. His son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

How Rehoboam lost the kingdom

10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come to make him king. ² When Jeroboam, Nebat’s son, heard the news, he returned from Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon. ³ The people sent and called for Jeroboam, who along with all Israel came and said to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father made our workload^[g] very heavy; if you will lessen the demands your father made of us and lighten the heavy workload he demanded from us, then we will serve you.”

⁵ He answered them, “Come back in three days.” So the people left.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive. “What do you advise?” Rehoboam asked. “How should I respond to these people?”

⁷ “If you are kind to these people and try to please them by speaking gently with them,” they replied, “they will be your servants forever.”

⁸ But Rehoboam ignored the advice the elders gave him and instead sought the counsel of the young advisors who had grown up with him and now served him. ⁹ “What do you advise?” he asked them. “How should we respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the workload your father demanded from us’?”

¹⁰ The young people who had grown up with Rehoboam said to him, “This people said to you, ‘Your father made our workload heavy. Lighten it for us!’ Now this is what you should say to them, ‘My baby^[h] finger is thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹ So if my father made your workload heavy, I’ll make it even heavier! If my father disciplined you with whips, I’ll do it with scorpions!’”

¹² Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had specified when he said, “Come back in three days.” ¹³ The king then answered the people harshly. He ignored the elders’ advice, ¹⁴ and instead followed the young people’s advice. He said, “My father made your workload heavy, but I’ll make it even heavier; my father disciplined you with whips, but I’ll do it with scorpions!”

¹⁵ The king didn’t listen to the people because this turn of events came from God so that the Lord might keep his promise concerning Jeroboam, Nebat’s son, which God delivered through Ahijah from Shiloh. ¹⁶ When all Israel saw^[i] that the king wouldn’t listen to them, the people answered the king,

Then all Israel went back to their homes, ¹⁷ and Rehoboam ruled over only the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ When King Rehoboam sent Hadoram to them (he was the leader of the work gang), the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam quickly got into his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ And so Israel has been in rebellion against David’s dynasty to this day.