God Comes to Solomon Again

9 So Solomon finished building the Lord’s Temple and his own palace. Solomon built everything that he wanted to build. ² Then the Lord appeared to Solomon again, just as he did at Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him,

“I heard your prayer and what you asked me to do. You built this Temple, and I have made it a holy place. So I will be honored there forever. I will watch over it and think of it always. ⁴ You must serve me with a pure and honest heart, just as your father David did. You must obey my laws and do everything that I commanded you. ⁵ If you do, I will make sure that your family will always rule Israel, just as I promised your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by one of his descendants.

^6-7 “But if you or your children stop following me, and don’t obey the laws and commands that I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, I will force Israel to leave the land that I have given to them. Israel will be an example to other people. Other people will make jokes about Israel. I made the Temple holy. It is the place where people honor me. But I will tear it down. ⁸ This Temple will be destroyed. Everyone who sees it will be amazed. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this terrible thing to this land and to this temple?’ ⁹ People will say, ‘This happened because they left the Lord their God. He brought their ancestors out of Egypt, but they decided to follow other gods. They worshiped and served those gods. That is why the Lord caused all these bad things to happen to them.’”

¹⁰ It took 20 years for King Solomon to build the Lord’s Temple and the king’s palace. ¹¹ Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar, pine and gold that he wanted, so Solomon gave him 20 cities in Galilee. ¹² So Hiram traveled from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him. But Hiram was not pleased when he saw them. ¹³ King Hiram said, “What are these towns that you have given me, my brother?” King Hiram named that land the Land of Cabul.^[a] And that area is still called Cabul today. ¹⁴ Hiram had sent King Solomon about 9000 pounds^[b] of gold to use in building the Temple.

¹⁵ King Solomon forced slaves to work for him to build the Temple and his palace. Then he used these slaves to build many other things. He built the Millo and the city wall around Jerusalem. Then he rebuilt the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶ In the past the king of Egypt had fought against the city of Gezer and burned it. He killed the Canaanites who lived there. When Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter, Pharaoh gave him that city as a wedding present. ¹⁷ Solomon rebuilt Gezer and the city of Lower Beth Horon. ¹⁸ He also built the cities of Baalath and Tamar in the Judean desert. ¹⁹ He also built cities where he could store grain, and he built places for his chariots and his horses. King Solomon also built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and all the places he ruled.

²⁰ There were people left in the land who were not Israelites. There were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ²¹ The Israelites had not been able to destroy them, but Solomon forced them to work for him as slaves. They are still slaves today. ²² Solomon did not force any Israelites to be his slaves. The Israelites were soldiers, government officials, officers, captains, and chariot commanders and drivers. ²³ There were 550 supervisors over Solomon’s projects. They supervised the men who did the work.

²⁴ Pharaoh’s daughter moved from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

²⁵ Three times each year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar that he built for the Lord. King Solomon also burned incense before the Lord and supplied what was needed for the Temple.

²⁶ King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber. This town is near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ²⁷ King Hiram had some skilled sailors who knew the sea well. He sent them to serve in Solomon’s navy and work with Solomon’s men. ²⁸ Solomon’s ships went to Ophir and brought back about 16 tons^[c] of gold for him.