Chronological Plan

¹And 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,

²that the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³And 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.

⁴Now 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,

⁵then 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.’

⁶But if you or your sons at all 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,

⁷then I will 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.

⁸And 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?’

⁹Then 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.’ ”

¹⁰Now 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

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.

¹²Then Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, but they did not please him.

¹³So he said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” And he called them the land of Cabul, as they are to this day.

¹⁴Then Hiram sent the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

¹⁵And this is the reason for the labor force which King Solomon raised: to build the house of the LORD, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

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.)

¹⁷And Solomon built Gezer, Lower Beth Horon,

¹⁸Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,

¹⁹all 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.

²⁰All the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel—

²¹that 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.

²²But 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.

²³Others were chiefs of the officials who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people who did the work.

²⁴But Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the City of David to her house which Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

²⁵Now 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.

²⁶King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

²⁷Then Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon.

²⁸And they went to Ophir, and acquired four hundred and twenty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

¹It came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own house,

²that the cities which Hiram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them; and he settled the children of Israel there.

³And Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it.

⁴He also built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities which he built in Hamath.

⁵He built Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars,

⁶also Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the chariot cities and the cities of the cavalry, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

⁷All the people who were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel—

⁸that is, their descendants who were left in the land after them, whom the children of Israel did not destroy—from these Solomon raised forced labor, as it is to this day.

⁹But Solomon did not make the children of Israel servants for his work. Some were men of war, captains of his officers, captains of his chariots, and his cavalry.

¹⁰And others were chiefs of the officials of King Solomon: two hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people.

¹¹Now Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.”

¹²Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD which he had built before the vestibule,

¹³according to the daily rate, offering according to the commandment of Moses, for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the three appointed yearly feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

¹⁴And, according to the order of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, the Levites for their duties (to praise and serve before the priests) as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at each gate; for so David the man of God had commanded.

¹⁵They did not depart from the command of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasuries.

¹⁶Now all the work of Solomon was well-ordered from the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was completed.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath on the seacoast, in the land of Edom.

¹⁸And Hiram sent him ships by the hand of his servants, and servants who knew the sea. They went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and acquired four hundred and fifty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.