Chronological Plan

¹When Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build,

²the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you made before me; I have consecrated this house that you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.

⁴As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances,

⁵then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.’

⁶“If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

⁷then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples.

⁸This house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished, and will hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this house?’

⁹Then they will say, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, worshiping them and serving them; therefore the LORD has brought this disaster upon them.’”

¹⁰At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house,

¹¹King Hiram of Tyre having supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

¹²But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him.

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

¹⁴But Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the house of the LORD and his own house, the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer

¹⁶(Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it down, had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife;

¹⁷so Solomon rebuilt Gezer), Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness, within the land,

¹⁹as well as all of Solomon’s storage cities, the cities for his chariots, the 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, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel —

²¹their descendants who were still left in the land, whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely — these Solomon conscripted for slave labor, and so they are to this day.

²²But of the Israelites Solomon made no slaves; they were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, and the commanders of his chariotry and cavalry.

²³These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred fifty, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

²⁴But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being on the altar that he built for the LORD, offering incense before the LORD. So he completed the house.

²⁶King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

²⁷Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, sailors who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon.

²⁸They went to Ophir, and imported from there four hundred twenty talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

¹At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own house,

²Solomon rebuilt the cities that Huram had given to him, and settled the people of Israel in them.

³Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and captured it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage towns that he built in Hamath.

⁵He also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars,

⁶and Baalath, as well as all Solomon’s storage towns, and all the towns for his chariots, the towns for his cavalry, and whatever 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, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,

⁸from their descendants who were still left in the land, whom the people of Israel had not destroyed — these Solomon conscripted for forced labor, as is still the case today.

⁹But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves for his work; they were soldiers, and his officers, the commanders of his chariotry and cavalry.

¹⁰These were the chief officers of King Solomon, two hundred fifty of them, who exercised authority over the people.

¹¹Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of King David of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.”

¹²Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD that he had built in front of the vestibule,

¹³as the duty of each day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual festivals — the festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks, and the festival of booths.

¹⁴According to the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their offices of praise and ministry alongside the priests as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers in their divisions for the several gates; for so David the man of God had commanded.

¹⁵They did not turn away from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites regarding anything at all, or regarding the treasuries.

¹⁶Thus all the work of Solomon was accomplished from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until the house of the LORD was finished completely.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Eloth on the shore of the sea, in the land of Edom.

¹⁸Huram sent him, in the care of his servants, ships and servants familiar with the sea. They went to Ophir, together with the servants of Solomon, and imported from there four hundred fifty talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.