1 Kings 8-10

I Kings 8

¹Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel with all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD’s covenant out of David’s city, which is Zion.

²All the men of Israel assembled themselves to King Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

³All the elders of Israel came, and the priests picked up the ark.

⁴They brought up the LORD’s ark, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent. The priests and the Levites brought these up.

⁵King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.

⁶The priests brought in the ark of the LORD’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, even under the cherubim’s wings.

⁷For the cherubim spread their wings out over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above.

⁸The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they were not seen outside. They are there to this day.

⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets 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.

¹⁰It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the LORD’s house,

¹¹so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the LORD’s glory filled the LORD’s house.

¹²Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

¹³I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

¹⁴The king turned his face around and blessed all the assembly of Israel; and all the assembly of Israel stood.

¹⁵He said, “Blessed is the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying,

¹⁶‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.’

¹⁷“Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁸But the LORD said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.

¹⁹Nevertheless, you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.’

²⁰The LORD has established his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

²¹There I have set a place for the ark, in which is the LORD’s covenant, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

²²Solomon stood before the LORD’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven;

²³and he said, “LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keeps covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart;

²⁴who has kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.

²⁵Now therefore, may LORD, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’

²⁶“Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father.

²⁷But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

²⁸Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant and for his supplication, LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today;

²⁹that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there;’ to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place.

³⁰Listen to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

³¹“If a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house,

³²then hear in heaven, and act, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

³³“When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against you, if they turn again to you and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house,

³⁴then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.

³⁵“When the sky is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and confess your name, and turn from their sin when you afflict them,

³⁶then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

³⁷“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

³⁸whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread out his hands toward this house,

³⁹then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men);

⁴⁰that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

⁴¹“Moreover, concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name’s sake

⁴²(for they shall hear of your great name and of your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house,

⁴³hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

⁴⁴“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name,

⁴⁵then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

⁴⁷yet if they repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly,’

⁴⁸if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name,

⁴⁹then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause;

⁵⁰and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

⁵¹(for they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron furnace);

⁵²that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you.

⁵³For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord GOD.”

⁵⁴It was so, that when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, he arose from before the LORD’s altar, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread out toward heaven.

⁵⁵He stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

⁵⁶“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant.

⁵⁷May the LORD our God be with us as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us or forsake us,

⁵⁸that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers.

⁵⁹Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as every day requires;

⁶⁰that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD himself is God. There is no one else.

⁶¹“Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as it is today.”

⁶²The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD.

⁶³Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the LORD, twenty two thousand head of cattle and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the LORD’s house.

⁶⁴The same day the king made the middle of the court holy that was before the LORD’s house; for there he offered the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too little to receive the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵So Solomon held the feast at that time, 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, even fourteen days.

⁶⁶On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad in their hearts for all the goodness that the LORD had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people.

I Kings 9

¹When Solomon had finished the building of the LORD’s house, the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do,

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

³The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

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

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

⁶But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and 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 out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

⁸Though this house is so high, yet everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?’

⁹and they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this evil on them.’”

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

¹¹(now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and cypress trees, and with gold, according to all his desire), King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

¹²Hiram came out of Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they didn’t please him.

¹³He said, “What cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” He called them the land of Cabul to this day.

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

¹⁵This is the reason of the forced labor which King Solomon conscripted: to build the LORD’s house, his own house, Millo, Jerusalem’s wall, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, taken Gezer, burned it with fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

¹⁷Solomon built in the land Gezer, Beth Horon the lower,

¹⁸Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness,

¹⁹all the storage cities that Solomon had, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

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

²¹their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy—of them Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day.

²²But of the children of Israel Solomon made no bondservants; but they were the men of war, his servants, his princes, his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

²³These were the five hundred fifty chief officers who were over Solomon’s work, who ruled over the people who labored in the work.

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

²⁵Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to the LORD three times per year, burning incense with them on the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.

²⁶King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

²⁷Hiram sent in the fleet his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

²⁸They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.

I Kings 10

¹When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the LORD’s name, she came to test him with hard questions.

²She came to Jerusalem with a very great caravan, with camels that bore spices, very much gold, and precious stones; and when she had come to Solomon, she talked with him about all that was in her heart.

³Solomon answered all her questions. There wasn’t anything hidden from the king which he didn’t tell her.

⁴When the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,

⁵the food of his table, the sitting of his servants, the attendance of his officials, their clothing, his cup bearers, and his ascent by which he went up to the LORD’s house, there was no more spirit in her.

⁶She said to the king, “It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts and of your wisdom.

⁷However, I didn’t believe the words until I came and my eyes had seen it. Behold, not even half was told me! Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame which I heard.

⁸Happy are your men, happy are these your servants who stand continually before you, who hear your wisdom.

⁹Blessed is the LORD your God, who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel. Because the LORD loved Israel forever, therefore he made you king, to do justice and righteousness.”

¹⁰She gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again was there such an abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹¹The fleet of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir also brought in from Ophir great quantities of almug trees and precious stones.

¹²The king made of the almug trees pillars for the LORD’s house and for the king’s house, harps also and stringed instruments for the singers; no such almug trees came or were seen to this day.

¹³King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she asked, in addition to that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own land, she and her servants.

¹⁴Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold,

¹⁵in addition to that which the traders brought, and the traffic of the merchants, and of all the kings of the mixed people, and of the governors of the country.

¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred bucklers of beaten gold; six hundred shekels of gold went to one buckler.

¹⁷He made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went to one shield; and the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the finest gold.

¹⁹There were six steps to the throne, and the top of the throne was round behind; and there were armrests on either side by the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests.

²⁰Twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other on the six steps. Nothing like it was made in any kingdom.

²¹All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver, because it was considered of little value in the days of Solomon.

²²For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

²³So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.

²⁴All the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.

²⁵Year after year, every man brought his tribute, vessels of silver, vessels of gold, clothing, armor, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁶Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. He kept them in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.

²⁷The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedars as common as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland.

²⁸The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt. The king’s merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price.

²⁹A chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for one hundred fifty shekels; and so they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria.