NKJV Bible in 365 Days
April
Solomon's Temple Established and Consecrated — April 1
1 Kings 5-9
1 Kings 5
1 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram had always loved David. 365N 91.1
2 Then Solomon sent to Hiram, saying: 365N 91.2
3 You know how my father David could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which were fought against him on every side, until the Lord put [a] his foes under the soles of his feet. 365N 91.3
4 But now the Lord my God has given me rest [b] on every side; there is neither adversary nor [c] evil occurrence. 365N 91.4
5 And behold, [d] I propose to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spoke to my father David, saying, “Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he shall build the house for My name.” 365N 91.5
6 Now therefore, command that they cut down cedars for me from Lebanon; and my servants will be with your servants, and I will pay you wages for your servants according to whatever you say. For you know there is none among us who has skill to cut timber like the Sidonians. 365N 91.6
7 So it was, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, for He has given David a wise son over this great people! 365N 91.7
8 Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying: I have considered the message which you sent me, and I will do all you desire concerning the cedar and cypress logs. 365N 91.8
9 My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; I will float them in rafts by sea to the place you indicate to me, and will have them broken apart there; then you can take them away. And you shall fulfill my desire by giving food for my household. 365N 91.9
10 Then Hiram gave Solomon cedar and cypress logs according to all his desire. 365N 91.10
11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand [e] kors of wheat as food for his household, and [f] twenty kors of pressed oil. Thus Solomon gave to Hiram year by year. 365N 91.11
12 So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together. 365N 91.12
13 Then King Solomon raised up a labor force out of all Israel; and the labor force was thirty thousand men. 365N 91.13
14 And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts: they were one month in Lebanon and two months at home; Adoniram was in charge of the labor force. 365N 91.14
15 Solomon had seventy thousand who carried burdens, and eighty thousand who quarried stone in the mountains, 365N 91.15
16 besides three thousand [g] three hundred from the chiefs of Solomon’s deputies, who supervised the people who labored in the work. 365N 91.16
17 And the king commanded them to quarry large stones, costly stones, and hewn stones, to lay the foundation of the [h] temple. 365N 91.17
18 So Solomon’s builders, Hiram’s builders, and the Gebalites quarried them; and they prepared timber and stones to build the [i] temple. 365N 91.18
1 Kings 6
1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and [a] eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of [b] Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord . 365N 91.19
2 Now the house which King Solomon built for the Lord , its length was sixty cubits, its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits. 365N 91.20
3 The vestibule in front of the [c] sanctuary of the house was [d] twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the width of [e] the vestibule extended [f] ten cubits from the front of the house. 365N 91.21
4 And he made for the house windows with beveled frames. 365N 91.22
5 Against the wall of the [g] temple he built chambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary and the [h] inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it. 365N 91.23
6 The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple, so that the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the [i] temple. 365N 91.24
7 And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. 365N 91.25
8 The doorway for the [j] middle story was on the right side of the temple. They went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third. 365N 91.26
9 So he built the [k] temple and finished it, and he paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar. 365N 91.27
10 And he built side chambers against the entire temple, each five cubits high; they were attached to the temple with cedar beams. 365N 91.28
11 Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying: 365N 91.29
12 “ Concerning this [l] temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My [m] word with you, which I spoke to your father David. 365N 91.30
13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.” 365N 91.31
14 So Solomon built the temple and finished it. 365N 91.32
15 And he built the inside walls of the temple with cedar boards; from the floor of the temple to the ceiling he paneled the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the temple with planks of cypress. 365N 91.33
16 Then he built the twenty-cubit room at the rear of the temple, from floor to ceiling, with cedar boards; he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the Most Holy Place. 365N 91.34
17 And in front of it the temple sanctuary was forty cubits long. 365N 91.35
18 The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen. 365N 91.36
19 And he prepared the [n] inner sanctuary inside the temple, to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord there. 365N 91.37
20 The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and overlaid the altar of cedar. 365N 91.38
21 So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. 365N 91.39
22 The whole temple he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the temple; also he overlaid with gold the entire altar that was by the inner sanctuary. 365N 91.40
23 Inside the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. 365N 91.41
24 One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub five cubits: ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. 365N 91.42
25 And the other cherub was ten cubits; both cherubim were of the same size and shape. 365N 91.43
26 The height of one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub. 365N 91.44
27 Then he set the cherubim inside the inner [o] room; and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. 365N 91.45
28 Also he overlaid the cherubim with gold. 365N 91.46
29 Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. 365N 91.47
30 And the floor of the temple he overlaid with gold, both the inner and outer sanctuaries. 365N 91.48
31 For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood; the lintel and doorposts were [p] one-fifth of the wall. 365N 91.49
32 The two doors were of olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. 365N 91.50
33 So for the door of the [q] sanctuary he also made doorposts of olive wood, [r] one-fourth of the wall. 365N 91.51
34 And the two doors were of cypress wood; two panels comprised one folding door, and two panels comprised the other folding door. 365N 91.52
35 Then he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers on them, and overlaid them with gold applied evenly on the carved work. 365N 91.53
36 And he built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams. 365N 91.54
37 In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of [s] Ziv. 365N 91.55
38 And in the eleventh year, in the month of [t] Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it. 365N 91.56
1 Kings 7
1 But Solomon took thirteen years to build his own house; so he finished all his house. 365N 91.57
2 He also built the House of the Forest of Lebanon; its length was [a] one hundred cubits, its width [b] fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, with four rows of cedar pillars, and cedar beams on the pillars. 365N 91.58
3 And it was paneled with cedar above the beams that were on forty-five pillars, fifteen to a row. 365N 91.59
4 There were windows with beveled frames in three rows, and window was opposite window in three tiers. 365N 91.60
5 And all the doorways and doorposts had rectangular frames; and window was opposite window in three tiers. 365N 91.61
6 He also made the Hall of Pillars: its length was fifty cubits, and its width thirty cubits; and in front of them was a portico with pillars, and a canopy was in front of them. 365N 91.62
7 Then he made a hall for the throne, the Hall of Judgment, where he might judge; and it was paneled with cedar from floor to [c] ceiling. 365N 91.63
8 And the house where he dwelt had another court inside the hall, of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had taken as wife. 365N 91.64
9 All these were of costly stones cut to size, trimmed with saws, inside and out, from the foundation to the eaves, and also on the outside to the great court. 365N 91.65
10 The foundation was of costly stones, large stones, some ten cubits and some eight cubits. 365N 91.66
11 And above were costly stones, hewn to size, and cedar wood. 365N 91.67
12 The great court was enclosed with three rows of hewn stones and a row of cedar beams. So were the inner court of the house of the Lord and the vestibule of the temple. 365N 91.68
13 Now King Solomon sent and brought [d] Huram from Tyre. 365N 91.69
14 He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze worker; he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working with all kinds of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all his work. 365N 91.70
15 And he [e] cast two pillars of bronze, each one eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits measured the circumference of each. 365N 91.71
16 Then he made two capitals of cast bronze, to set on the tops of the pillars. The height of one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. 365N 91.72
17 He made a lattice network, with wreaths of chainwork, for the capitals which were on top of the pillars: seven chains for one capital and seven for the other capital. 365N 91.73
18 So he made the pillars, and two rows of pomegranates above the network all around to cover the capitals that were on top; and thus he did for the other capital. 365N 91.74
19 The capitals which were on top of the pillars in the hall were in the shape of lilies, four cubits. 365N 91.75
20 The capitals on the two pillars also had pomegranates above, by the convex surface which was next to the network; and there were two hundred such pomegranates in rows on each of the capitals all around. 365N 91.76
21 Then he set up the pillars by the vestibule of the temple; he set up the pillar on the right and called its name [f] Jachin, and he set up the pillar on the left and called its name [g] Boaz. 365N 91.77
22 The tops of the pillars were in the shape of lilies. So the work of the pillars was finished. 365N 91.78
23 And he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. 365N 91.79
24 Below its brim were ornamental buds encircling it all around, ten to a cubit, all the way around the Sea. The ornamental buds were cast in two rows when it was cast. 365N 91.80
25 It stood on twelve oxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their back parts pointed inward. 365N 91.81
26 It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It contained [h] two thousand baths. 365N 91.82
27 He also made ten [i] carts of bronze; four cubits was the length of each cart, four cubits its width, and three cubits its height. 365N 91.83
28 And this was the design of the carts: They had panels, and the panels were between frames; 365N 91.84
29 on the panels that were between the frames were lions, oxen, and cherubim. And on the frames was a pedestal on top. Below the lions and oxen were wreaths of plaited work. 365N 91.85
30 Every cart had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze, and its four feet had supports. Under the laver were supports of cast bronze beside each wreath. 365N 91.86
31 Its opening inside the crown at the top was one cubit in diameter; and the opening was round, shaped like a pedestal, one and a half cubits in outside diameter; and also on the opening were engravings, but the panels were square, not round. 365N 91.87
32 Under the panels were the four wheels, and the axles of the wheels were joined to the cart. The height of a wheel was one and a half cubits. 365N 91.88
33 The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel; their axle pins, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all of cast bronze. 365N 91.89
34 And there were four supports at the four corners of each cart; its supports were part of the cart itself. 365N 91.90
35 On the top of the cart, at the height of half a cubit, it was perfectly round. And on the top of the cart, its flanges and its panels were of the same casting. 365N 91.91
36 On the plates of its flanges and on its panels he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was a clear space on each, with wreaths all around. 365N 91.92
37 Thus he made the ten carts. All of them were of [j] the same mold, one measure, and one shape. 365N 91.93
38 Then he made ten lavers of bronze; each laver contained [k] forty baths, and each laver was four cubits. On each of the ten carts was a laver. 365N 91.94
39 And he put five carts on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house. He set the Sea on the right side of the house, toward the southeast. 365N 91.95
40 Huram [l] made the lavers and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing all the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of the Lord : 365N 91.96
41 the two pillars, the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals which were on top of the pillars; 365N 91.97
42 four hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the pillars); 365N 91.98
43 the ten carts, and ten lavers on the carts; 365N 91.99
44 one Sea, and twelve oxen under the Sea; 365N 91.100
45 the pots, the shovels, and the bowls. All these articles which [m] Huram made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord were of burnished bronze. 365N 91.101
46 In the plain of Jordan the king had them cast in clay molds, between Succoth and Zaretan. 365N 91.102
47 And Solomon did not weigh all the articles, because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined. 365N 91.103
48 Thus Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of the Lord : the altar of gold, and the table of gold on which was the showbread; 365N 91.104
49 the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left in front of the inner sanctuary, with the flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold; 365N 91.105
50 the basins, the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the [n] censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner room (the Most Holy Place ) and for the doors of the main hall of the temple. 365N 91.106
51 So all the work that King Solomon had done for the house of the Lord was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord . 365N 91.107
1 Kings 8
1 Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David, which is Zion. 365N 91.108
2 Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the feast in the month of [a] Ethanim, which is the seventh month. 365N 91.109
3 So all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. 365N 91.110
4 Then they brought up the ark of the Lord , the [b] tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. 365N 91.111
5 Also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. 365N 91.112
6 Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. 365N 91.113
7 For the cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. 365N 91.114
8 The poles extended so that the [c] ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. 365N 91.115
9 Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 365N 91.116
10 And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord , 365N 91.117
11 so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord . 365N 91.118
12 Then Solomon spoke: “The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud. 365N 91.119
13 I have surely built You an exalted house, And a place for You to dwell in forever.” 365N 91.120
14 Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. 365N 91.121
15 And he said: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David, and with His hand has fulfilled it, saying, 365N 91.122
16 ‘Since the day that I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there; but I chose David to be over My people Israel.’ 365N 91.123
17 Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a [d] temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 365N 91.124
18 But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, you did well that it was in your heart. 365N 91.125
19 Nevertheless you shall not build the temple, but your son who will come from your body, he shall build the temple for My name.’ 365N 91.126
20 So the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke; and I have [e] filled the position of my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised; and I have built a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 365N 91.127
21 And there I have made a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord which He made with our fathers, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.” 365N 91.128
22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; 365N 91.129
23 and he said: “ Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. 365N 91.130
24 You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. 365N 91.131
25 Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have walked before Me.’ 365N 91.132
26 And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father. 365N 91.133
27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! 365N 91.134
28 Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today: 365N 91.135
29 that Your eyes may be open toward this [f] temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. 365N 91.136
30 And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven Your dwelling place; and when You hear, forgive. 365N 91.137
31 “When anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, 365N 91.138
32 then hear in heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked, bringing his way on his head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. 365N 91.139
33 “When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this temple, 365N 91.140
34 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers. 365N 91.141
35 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, 365N 91.142
36 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance. 365N 91.143
37 “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their [g] cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; 365N 91.144
38 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: 365N 91.145
39 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), 365N 91.146
40 that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers. 365N 91.147
41 “Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name’s sake 365N 91.148
42 (for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this temple, 365N 91.149
43 hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name. 365N 91.150
44 “When Your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the Lord toward the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, 365N 91.151
45 then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their [h] cause. 365N 91.152
46 “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; 365N 91.153
47 yet when they [i] come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness’; 365N 91.154
48 and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name: 365N 91.155
49 then hear in heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their [j] cause, 365N 91.156
50 and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them 365N 91.157
51 (for they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace), 365N 91.158
52 that Your eyes may be open to the supplication of Your servant and the supplication of Your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You. 365N 91.159
53 For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by Your servant Moses, when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God .” 365N 91.160
54 And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord , that he arose from before the altar of the Lord , from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. 365N 91.161
55 Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: 365N 91.162
56 “Blessed be the Lord , who has given rest [k] to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. 365N 91.163
57 May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, 365N 91.164
58 that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. 365N 91.165
59 And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord , be near the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require, 365N 91.166
60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. 365N 91.167
61 Let your heart therefore be [l] loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.” 365N 91.168
62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord . 365N 91.169
63 And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the Lord , twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord . 365N 91.170
64 On the same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord ; for there he offered burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings. 365N 91.171
65 At that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, seven days and seven more days—fourteen days. 365N 91.172
66 On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they [m] blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the good that the Lord had done for His servant David, and for Israel His people. 365N 91.173
1 Kings 9
1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he wanted to do, 365N 91.174
2 that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 365N 91.175
3 And the Lord said to him: “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 365N 91.176
4 Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 365N 91.177
5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ 365N 91.178
6 But if you or your sons at all [a] turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 365N 91.179
7 then I will [b] cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 365N 91.180
8 And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 365N 91.181
9 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Lord has brought all this calamity on them.’ ” 365N 91.182
10 Now it happened at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house 365N 91.183
11 (Hiram the king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress and gold, as much as he desired), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 365N 91.184
12 Then Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, but they did not please him. 365N 91.185
13 So he said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” And he called them the land of [c] Cabul, as they are to this day. 365N 91.186
14 Then Hiram sent the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold. 365N 91.187
15 And this is the reason for the labor force which King Solomon raised: to build the house of the Lord , his own house, [d] the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 365N 91.188
16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer and burned it with fire, had killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.) 365N 91.189
17 And Solomon built Gezer, Lower Beth Horon, 365N 91.190
18 Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, 365N 91.191
19 all the storage cities that Solomon had, cities for his chariots and cities for his cavalry, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 365N 91.192
20 All the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel— 365N 91.193
21 that is, their descendants who were left in the land after them, whom the children of Israel had not been able to destroy completely—from these Solomon raised forced labor, as it is to this day. 365N 91.194
22 But of the children of Israel Solomon made no forced laborers, because they were men of war and his servants: his officers, his captains, commanders of his chariots, and his cavalry. 365N 91.195
23 Others were chiefs of the officials who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people who did the work. 365N 91.196
24 But Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the City of David to her house which [e] Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo. 365N 91.197
25 Now three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for the Lord , and he burned incense with them on the altar that was before the Lord . So he finished the temple. 365N 91.198
26 King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion Geber, which is near [f] Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 365N 91.199
27 Then Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon. 365N 91.200
28 And they went to Ophir, and acquired four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon. 365N 91.201