1 After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the other construction projects he had planned,tn Heb “and all the desire of Solomon which he wanted to do.”

2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, in the same way he had appeared to him at Gibeon.sn In the same way he had appeared to him at Gibeon. See 1 Kgs 3:5.

3 The Lord said to him, “I have answeredtn Heb “I have heard.” your prayer and your request for help that you made to me. I have consecrated this temple you built by making it my permanent home;tn Heb “by placing my name there perpetually” (or perhaps, “forever”). I will be constantly present there.tn Heb “and my eyes and my heart will be there all the days.”

4 You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations.tn Heb “As for you, if you walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, by doing all which I commanded you, [and] you keep my rules and my regulations.” Verse 4 is actually a lengthy protasis (“if” section) of a conditional sentence, the apodosis (“then” section) of which appears in v. 5.

5 Then I will allow your dynasty to rule over Israel permanently,tn Heb “I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever.” just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’tn Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from upon the throne of Israel.”

6 “But if you or your sons ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep,tn Heb “which I placed before you.” and decide to serve and worship other gods,tn Heb “and walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

7 then I will remove Israel from the landtn Heb “I will cut off Israel from upon the surface of the land.” I have given them, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence,tn Heb “and the temple which I consecrated for my name I will send away from before my face.”sn Instead of “I will send away,” the parallel text in 2 Chr 7:20 has “I will throw away.” The two verbs sound very similar in Hebrew, so the discrepancy is likely due to an oral transmissional error. and Israel will be mocked and ridiculedtn Heb “will become a proverb and a taunt,” that is, a proverbial example of destruction and an object of reproach. among all the nations.

8 This temple will become a heap of ruins;tn Heb “and this house will be high [or elevated].” The statement makes little sense in this context, which predicts the desolation that judgment will bring. Some treat the clause as concessive, “Even though this temple is lofty [now].” Others, following the lead of several ancient versions, emend the text to, “this temple will become a heap of ruins.” everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn,tn Heb “hiss,” or perhaps “whistle.” This refers to a derisive sound one would make when taunting an object of ridicule. saying, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’

9 Others will then answer,tn Heb “and they will say.” ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who led their ancestorstn Heb “fathers.” out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served.tn Heb “and they took hold of other gods and bowed down to them and served them.” That is why the Lord has brought all this disaster down on them.’”

10 After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and the royal palace,tn Heb “the two houses, the house of the Lord and the house of the king.”

11 King Solomon gave King Hiram of Tyremap For location see Map1-A2; Map2-G2; Map4-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3. twenty cities in the region of Galilee, because Hiram had supplied Solomon with cedars, evergreens, and all the gold he wanted.

12 When Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the cities Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.tn Heb “they were not agreeable in his eyes.”

13 Hiram asked,tn Heb “and he said.” “Why did you give me these cities, my friendtn Heb “my brother.” Kings allied through a parity treaty would sometimes address each other as “my brother.” See 1 Kgs 20:32-33.?” He called that area the region of Cabul, a name which it has retained to this day.tn Heb “he called them the land of Cabul to this day.” The significance of the name is unclear, though it appears to be disparaging. The name may be derived from a root, attested in Akkadian and Arabic, meaning “bound” or “restricted.” Some propose a wordplay, pointing out that the name “Cabul” sounds like a Hebrew phrase meaning, “like not,” or “as good as nothing.”

14 Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talentstn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 9,000 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “five tons”; TEV “4,000 kilogrammes.” of gold.

15 Here are the details concerning the work crewssn The work crews. This Hebrew word מַס (mas) refers to a group of laborers conscripted for royal or public service. King Solomon conscriptedtn Heb “raised up.” to build the Lord’s temple, his palace, the terrace, the wall of Jerusalem,map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4. and the cities oftn The words “the cities of” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Hazor,map For location see Map1-D2; Map2-D3; Map3-A2; Map4-C1. Megiddo,map For location see Map1-D4; Map2-C1; Map4-C2; Map5-F2; Map7-B1. and Gezer.

16 (Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer. He burned it and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city. He gave it as a wedding present to his daughter, who had married Solomon.)

17 Solomon built up Gezer, lower Beth Horon,

18 Baalath, Tadmor in the wilderness,tn The Hebrew text has “in the wilderness, in the land.”

19 all the storage cities that belonged to him,tn Heb “to Solomon.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons. and the cities where chariots and horses were kept.tn Heb “the cities of the chariots and the cities of the horses.” He built whatever he wanted in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom.tn Heb “and the desire of Solomon which he desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his kingdom.”

20 Now several non-Israelite peoples were left in the land after the conquest of Joshua, including the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.tn Heb “all the people who were left from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not from the sons of Israel.”

21 Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out completely). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews, and they continue in that role to this very day.tn Heb “their sons who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel were unable to wipe out, and Solomon raised them up for a crew of labor to this day.”

22 Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews;sn These work crews. The work crews referred to here must be different than the temporary crews described in 5:13-16. the Israelites served as his soldiers, attendants, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces.tn Heb “officers of his chariots and his horses.”

23 These men were also in charge of Solomon’s work projects; there were a total of 550 men who supervised the workers.tn Heb “these [were] the officials of the governors who were over the work belonging to Solomon, five hundred fifty, the ones ruling over the people, the ones doing the work.”

24 Solomon built the terrace as soon as Pharaoh’s daughter moved up from the city of Davidsn The phrase city of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7. to the palace Solomon built for her.tn Heb “As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her house which he built for her, then he built the terrace.”

25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offeringstn Or “tokens of peace”; NIV, TEV “fellowship offerings.” on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense along with them before the Lord. He made the temple his official worship place.tn Heb “and he made complete the house.”

26 King Solomon also built shipstn Or “a fleet” (in which case “ships” would be implied). in Ezion Geber, which is located near Elat in the land of Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

27 Hiram sent his fleet and some of his sailors, who were well acquainted with the sea, to serve with Solomon’s men.tn Heb “and Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, men of ships, [who] know the sea, [to be] with the servants of Solomon.”

28 They sailedtn Heb “went.” to Ophir, took from there four hundred twenty talentstn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 31,500 pounds of gold (cf. NCV); CEV, NLT “sixteen tons”; TEV “more than 14,000 kilogrammes.” of gold, and then brought them to King Solomon.