1 Kings 9

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1. 1After Solomon had finished building the LORD's temple, the royal palace, and every other project he had set his heart on,
2. 2the LORD appeared to him a second time, just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
3. 3The LORD told him, "I have heard your prayer and your plea. I have set apart this temple you built, placing my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there always."
4. 4And if you walk before me as your father David did, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing everything I have commanded you, and keep my statutes and my judgments,
5. 5then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised your father David when I said, 'You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'
6. 6"But if you or your descendants turn away from following me and refuse to keep my commandments and statutes that I've given you, and instead go off to serve and worship other gods,"
7. 7then I will cut Israel off from the land I gave them; and this temple, which I have set apart for my name, I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all people.
8. 8At this high house, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?'
9. 9And they shall answer, 'Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold of other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them. Therefore, the LORD has brought all this evil upon them.'
10. 10At the end of 20 years, when Solomon had built the two houses—the house of the LORD and the king's house—
11. 11King Hiram of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire, so King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
12. 12But when Hiram traveled from Tyre to see the cities Solomon had given him, he was not pleased.
13. 13He said, "What kind of cities are these you've given me, my brother?" And he called them the land of Cabul, and it is still called that today.
14. 14Hiram had sent the king 120 talents of gold.
15. 15This is why King Solomon raised a labor force: to build the house of the LORD, his own house, Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.
16. 16Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, burned it to the ground, and killed the Canaanites living there. He then gave the city as a gift to his daughter, Solomon's wife.
17. 17Solomon rebuilt Gezer, along with Lower Beth Horon,
18. 18Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,
19. 19He also built all his storage cities, cities for his chariots, cities for his horsemen, and whatever else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom.
20. 20There were still people left in the land from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — people who were not Israelites.
21. 21Their descendants, whom the Israelites had not been able to completely destroy, Solomon conscripted into forced labor — and they remain in forced labor to this day.
22. 22Solomon did not make any Israelites into forced laborers. Instead, they served as his soldiers, officials, commanders, captains, and chariot and cavalry officers.
23. 23These were the chief officers over Solomon's work, 550 in all, who ruled over the people carrying out the labor.
24. 24Once Pharaoh's daughter moved from the city of David into the palace Solomon had built for her, he then constructed the Millo.
25. 25Three times a year, Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, and he burned incense on the altar before the LORD. So he completed the house.
26. 26King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom.
27. 27Hiram sent his servants, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, to join Solomon's servants in the navy.
28. 28They sailed to Ophir, where they acquired 420 talents of gold and brought it back to King Solomon.