Good News Translation (GNT)

Solomon’s Officials

1 Solomon was king of all Israel,

2 and these were his high officials:

The priest: Azariah son of Zadok

3 The court secretaries: Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha

In charge of the records: Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud

4 Commander of the army: Benaiah son of Jehoiada

Priests: Zadok and Abiathar

5 Chief of the district governors: Azariah son of Nathan

Royal Adviser: the priest Zabud son of Nathan

6 In charge of the palace servants: Ahishar

In charge of the forced labor: Adoniram son of Abda

7 Solomon appointed twelve men as district governors in Israel. They were to provide food from their districts for the king and his household, each man being responsible for one month out of the year.

8 The following are the names of these twelve officers and the districts they were in charge of:

Benhur: the hill country of Ephraim

9 Bendeker: the cities of Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, Elon, and Beth Hanan

10 Benhesed: the cities of Arubboth and Socoh and all the territory of Hepher

11 Benabinadab, who was married to Solomon’s daughter Taphath: the whole region of Dor

12 Baana son of Ahilud: the cities of Taanach, Megiddo, and all the region near Beth Shan, near the town of Zarethan, south of the town of Jezreel, as far as the city of Abel Meholah and the city of Jokmeam

13 Bengeber: the city of Ramoth in Gilead, and the villages in Gilead belonging to the clan of Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, and the region of Argob in Bashan, sixty large towns in all, fortified with walls and with bronze bars on the gates

14 Ahinadab son of Iddo: the district of Mahanaim

15 Ahimaaz, who was married to Basemath, another of Solomon’s daughters: the territory of Naphtali

16 Baana son of Hushai: the region of Asher and the town of Bealoth

17 Jehoshaphat son of Paruah: the territory of Issachar

18 Shimei son of Ela: the territory of Benjamin

19 Geber son of Uri: the region of Gilead, which had been ruled by King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan

Besides these twelve, there was one governor over the whole land.

Solomon’s Prosperous Reign

20 The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore; they ate and drank, and were happy.

21 Solomon’s kingdom included all the nations from the Euphrates River to Philistia and the Egyptian border. They paid him taxes and were subject to him all his life.

22 The supplies Solomon needed each day were 150 bushels of fine flour and 300 bushels of meal;

23 10 stall-fed cattle, 20 pasture-fed cattle, and 100 sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and poultry.

24 Solomon ruled over all the land west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah on the Euphrates as far west as the city of Gaza. All the kings west of the Euphrates were subject to him, and he was at peace with all the neighboring countries.

25 As long as he lived, the people throughout Judah and Israel lived in safety, each family with its own grapevines and fig trees.

26 Solomon had forty thousand stalls for his chariot horses and twelve thousand cavalry horses.

27 His twelve governors, each one in the month assigned to him, supplied the food King Solomon needed for himself and for all who ate in the palace; they always supplied everything needed.

28 Each governor also supplied his share of barley and straw, where it was needed,for the chariot horses and the work animals.

29 God gave Solomon unusual wisdom and insight, and knowledge too great to be measured.

30 Solomon was wiser than the wise men of the East or the wise men of Egypt.

31 He was the wisest of all men: wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame spread throughout all the neighboring countries.

32 He composed three thousand proverbs and more than a thousand songs.

33 He spoke of trees and plants, from the Lebanon cedars to the hyssop that grows on walls; he talked about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish.

34 Kings all over the world heard of his wisdom and sent people to listen to him.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/4-6c4356c1c5b281444c94c5ea4ab6766a.mp3?version_id=68—

Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple

1 King Hiram of Tyre had always been a friend of David’s, and when he heard that Solomon had succeeded his father David as king, he sent ambassadors to him.

2 Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:

3 “You know that because of the constant wars my father David had to fight against the enemy countries all around him, he could not build a temple for the worship of the Lord his God until the Lord had given him victory over all his enemies.

4 But now the Lord my God has given me peace on all my borders. I have no enemies, and there is no danger of attack.

5 The Lord promised my father David, ‘Your son, whom I will make king after you, will build a temple for me.’ And I have now decided to build that temple for the worship of the Lord my God.

6 So send your men to Lebanon to cut down cedars for me. My men will work with them, and I will pay your men whatever you decide. As you well know, my men don’t know how to cut down trees as well as yours do.”

7 Hiram was extremely pleased when he received Solomon’s message, and he said, “Praise the Lord today for giving David such a wise son to succeed him as king of that great nation!”

8 Then Hiram sent Solomon the following message: “I have received your message, and I am ready to do what you ask. I will provide the cedars and the pine trees.

9 My men will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea and will tie them together in rafts to float them down the coast to the place you choose. There my men will untie them, and your men will take charge of them. On your part, I would like you to supply the food for my men.”

10 So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar and pine logs that he wanted,

11 and Solomon provided Hiram with 100,000 bushels of wheat and 110,000 gallonsof pure olive oil every year to feed his men.

12 The Lord kept his promise and gave Solomon wisdom. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty with each other.

13 King Solomon drafted 30,000 men as forced labor from all over Israel,

14 and put Adoniram in charge of them. He divided them into three groups of 10,000 men, and each group spent one month in Lebanon and two months back home.

15 Solomon also had 80,000 stone cutters in the hill country, with 70,000 men to carry the stones,

16 and he placed 3,300 foremen in charge of them to supervise their work.

17 At King Solomon’s command they cut fine large stones for the foundation of the Temple.

18 Solomon’s and Hiram’s workers and men from the city of Byblos prepared the stones and the timber to build the Temple.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/5-f9f8b948198c3e6838dadfe6a8d40692.mp3?version_id=68—

Solomon Builds the Temple

1 Four hundred and eighty years after the people of Israel left Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the second month, the month of Ziv, Solomon began work on the Temple.

2 Inside it was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

3 The entrance room was 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide, as wide as the sanctuary itself.

4 The walls of the Temple had openings in them, narrower on the outside than on the inside.

5 Against the outside walls, on the sides and the back of the Temple, a three-storied annex was built, each story 7½ feet high.

6 Each room in the lowest story was 7½ feet wide, in the middle story 9 feet wide, and in the top story 10½ feet wide. The Temple wall on each floor was thinner than on the floor below, so that the rooms could rest on the wall without having their beams built into it.

7 The stones with which the Temple was built had been prepared at the quarry, so that there was no noise made by hammers, axes, or any other iron tools as the Temple was being built.

8 The entrance to the loweststory of the annex was on the south side of the Temple, with stairs leading up to the second and third stories.

9 So King Solomon finished building the Temple. He put in a ceiling made of beams and boards of cedar.

10 The three-storied annex, each story7½ feet high, was built against the outside walls of the Temple, and was joined to them by cedar beams.

11 The Lord said to Solomon,

12 “If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David.

13 I will live among my people Israel in this Temple that you are building, and I will never abandon them.”

14 So Solomon finished building the Temple.

The Interior Furnishings of the Temple

15 The inside walls were covered with cedar panels from the floor to the ceiling, and the floor was made of pine.

16 An inner room, called the Most Holy Place, was built in the rear of the Temple. It was 30 feet long and was partitioned off by cedar boards reaching from the floor to the ceiling.

17 The room in front of the Most Holy Place was 60 feet long.

18 The cedar panels were decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers; the whole interior was covered with cedar, so that the stones of the walls could not be seen.

19 In the rear of the Temple an inner room was built, where the Lord’s Covenant Box was to be placed.

20 This inner room was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high, all covered with pure gold. The altar was covered with cedar panels.

21 The inside of the Temple was covered with gold, and gold chains were placed across the entrance of the inner room, which was also covered with gold.

22 The whole interior of the Temple was covered with gold, as well as the altar in the Most Holy Place.

23 Two winged creatures were made of olive wood and placed in the Most Holy Place, each one 15 feet tall.

24-26 Both were of the same size and shape. Each had two wings, each wing 7½ feet long, so that the distance from one wing tip to the other was 15 feet.

27 They were placed side by side in the Most Holy Place, so that two of their outstretched wings touched each other in the middle of the room, and the other two wings touched the walls.

28 The two winged creatures were covered with gold.

29 The walls of the main room and of the inner room were all decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers.

30 Even the floor was covered with gold.

31 A double door made of olive wood was set in place at the entrance of the Most Holy Place; the top of the doorway was a pointed arch.

32 The doors were decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers. The doors, the winged creatures, and the palm trees were covered with gold.

33 For the entrance to the main room a rectangular doorframe of olive wood was made.

34 There were two folding doors made of pine

35 and decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers, which were evenly covered with gold.

36 An inner court was built in front of the Temple, enclosed with walls which had one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of stone.

37 The foundation of the Temple was laid in the second month, the month of Ziv, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign.

38 In the eighth month, the month of Bul, in the eleventh year of Solomon’s reign, the Temple was completely finished exactly as it had been planned. It had taken Solomon seven years to build it.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/6-b4ae4d40def699ed1431334197ae8b1a.mp3?version_id=68—

Solomon’s Palace

1 Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years.

2-3 The Hall of the Forest of Lebanonwas 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It had threerows of cedar pillars, 15 in each row, with cedar beams resting on them. The ceiling was of cedar, extending over storerooms, which were supported by the pillars.

4 On each of the two side walls there were three rows of windows.

5 The doorways and the windowshad rectangular frames, and the three rows of windows in each wall faced the opposite rows.

6 The Hall of Columns was 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. It had a covered porch, supported by columns.

7 The Throne Room, also called the Hall of Judgment, where Solomon decided cases, had cedar panels from the floor to the rafters.

8 Solomon’s own quarters, in another court behind the Hall of Judgment, were made like the other buildings. He also built the same kind of house for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt.

9 All these buildings and the great court were made of fine stones from the foundations to the eaves. The stones were prepared at the quarry and cut to measure, with their inner and outer sides trimmed with saws.

10 The foundations were made of large stones prepared at the quarry, some of them twelve feet long and others fifteen feet long.

11 On top of them were other stones, cut to measure, and cedar beams.

12 The palace court, the inner court of the Temple, and the entrance room of the Temple had walls with one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of cut stones.

Huram’s Task

13 King Solomon sent for a man named Huram, a craftsman living in the city of Tyre, who was skilled in bronze work.

14 His father, who was no longer living, was from Tyre, and had also been a skilled bronze craftsman; his mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. Huram was an intelligent and experienced craftsman. He accepted King Solomon’s invitation to be in charge of all the bronze work.

The Two Bronze Columns

15 Huram cast two bronze columns, each one 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference,and placed them at the entrance of the Temple.

16 He also made two bronze capitals, each one 7½ feet tall, to be placed on top of the columns.

17 The top of each column was decorated with a design of interwoven chains

18 and two rows of bronze pomegranates.

19 The capitals were shaped like lilies, 6 feet tall,

20 and were placed on a rounded section which was above the chain design. There were 200 pomegranates in two rows around eachcapital.

21 Huram placed these two bronze columns in front of the entrance of the Temple: the one on the south side was named Jachinand the one on the north was named Boaz.

22 The lily-shaped bronze capitals were on top of the columns.

And so the work on the columns was completed.

The Bronze Tank

23 Huram made a round tank of bronze, 7½ feet deep, 15 feet in diameter, and 45 feet in circumference.

24 All around the outer edge of the rim of the tankwere two rows of bronze gourds, which had been cast all in one piece with the rest of the tank.

25 The tank rested on the backs of twelve bronze bulls that faced outward, three facing in each direction.

26 The sides of the tank were 3 inches thick. Its rim was like the rim of a cup, curving outward like the petals of a lily. The tank held about 10,000 gallons.

The Bronze Carts

27 Huram also made ten bronze carts; each was 6 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4½ feet high.

28 They were made of square panels which were set in frames,

29 with the figures of lions, bulls, and winged creatures on the panels; and on the frames, above and underneath the lions and bulls, there were spiral figures in relief.

30 Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. At the four corners were bronze supports for a basin; the supports were decorated with spiral figures in relief.

31 There was a circular frame on top for the basin. It projected upward 18 inches from the top of the cart and 7 inches down into it. It had carvings around it.

32 The wheels were 25 inches high; they were under the panels, and the axles were of one piece with the carts.

33 The wheels were like chariot wheels; their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of bronze.

34 There were four supports at the bottom corners of each cart, which were of one piece with the cart.

35 There was a 9-inch band around the top of each cart; its supports and the panels were of one piece with the cart.

36 The supports and panels were decorated with figures of winged creatures, lions, and palm trees, wherever there was space for them, with spiral figures all around.

37 This, then, is how the carts were made; they were all alike, having the same size and shape.

38 Huram also made ten basins, one for each cart. Each basin was 6 feet in diameter and held 200 gallons.

39 He placed five of the carts on the south side of the Temple, and the other five on the north side; the tank he placed at the southeast corner.

Summary List of Temple Furnishings

40-45 Huram also made pots, shovels, and bowls. He completed all his work for King Solomon for the Lord’s Temple. This is what he made:

The two columns

The two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the columns

The design of interwoven chains on each capital

The 400 bronze pomegranates, in two rows of 100 each around the design on each capital

The ten carts

The ten basins

The tank

The twelve bulls supporting the tank

The pots, shovels, and bowls

All this equipment for the Temple, which Huram made for King Solomon, was of polished bronze.

46 The king had it all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zarethan, in the Jordan Valley.

47 Solomon did not have these bronze objects weighed, because there were too many of them, and so their weight was never determined.

48 Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the Temple: the altar, the table for the bread offered to God,

49 the ten lampstands that stood in front of the Most Holy Place, five on the south side and five on the north; the flowers, lamps, and tongs;

50 the cups, lamp snuffers, bowls, dishes for incense, and the pans used for carrying live coals; and the hinges for the doors of the Most Holy Place and of the outer doors of the Temple. All these furnishings were made of gold.

51 When King Solomon finished all the work on the Temple, he placed in the Temple storerooms all the things that his father David had dedicated to the Lord—the silver, gold, and other articles.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/7-8afcadb80abf1308dadfa04003571130.mp3?version_id=68—

The Covenant Box Is Brought to the Temple

1 Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to come to him in Jerusalem in order to take the Lord’s Covenant Box from Zion, David’s City, to the Temple.

2 They all assembled during the Festival of Shelters in the seventh month, in the month of Ethanim.

3 When all the leaders had gathered, the priests lifted the Covenant Box

4 and carried it to the Temple. The Levites and the priests also moved the Tent of the Lord’s presence and all its equipment to the Temple.

5 King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle—too many to count.

6 Then the priests carried the Covenant Box into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures.

7 Their outstretched wings covered the box and the poles it was carried by.

8 The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.)

9 There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt.

10 As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud

11 shining with the dazzling light of the Lord’s presence, and they could not go back in to perform their duties.

12 Then Solomon prayed:

“You, Lord, have placed the sun in the sky,

yet you have chosen to live in clouds and darkness.

13 Now I have built a majestic temple for you,

a place for you to live in forever.”

Solomon’s Address to the People

14 As the people stood there, King Solomon turned to face them, and he asked God’s blessing on them.

15 He said, “Praise the Lord God of Israel! He has kept the promise he made to my father David, when he told him,

16 ‘From the time I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen any city in all the land of Israel in which a temple should be built where I would be worshiped. But I chose you, David, to rule my people.’”

17 And Solomon continued, “My father David planned to build a temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel,

18 but the Lord said to him, ‘You were right in wanting to build a temple for me,

19 but you will never build it. It is your son, your own son, who will build my temple.’

20 “And now the Lord has kept his promise. I have succeeded my father as king of Israel, and I have built the Temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel.

21 I have also provided a place in the Temple for the Covenant Box containing the stone tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”

Solomon’s Prayer

22 Then in the presence of the people Solomon went and stood in front of the altar, where he raised his arms

23 and prayed, “Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below! You keep your covenant with your people and show them your love when they live in wholehearted obedience to you.

24 You have kept the promise you made to my father David; today every word has been fulfilled.

25 And now, Lord God of Israel, I pray that you will also keep the other promise you made to my father when you told him that there would always be one of his descendants ruling as king of Israel, provided they obeyed you as carefully as he did.

26 So now, O God of Israel, let everything come true that you promised to my father David, your servant.

27 “But can you, O God, really live on earth? Not even all of heaven is large enough to hold you, so how can this Temple that I have built be large enough?

28 Lord my God, I am your servant. Listen to my prayer, and grant the requests I make to you today.

29 Watch over this Temple day and night, this place where you have chosen to be worshiped. Hear me when I face this Temple and pray.

30 Hear my prayers and the prayers of your people when they face this place and pray. In your home in heaven hear us and forgive us.

31 “When a person is accused of wronging another and is brought to your altar in this Temple to take an oath that he is innocent,

32 O Lord, listen in heaven and judge your servants. Punish the guilty one as he deserves, and acquit the one who is innocent.

33 “When your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and then when they turn to you and come to this Temple, humbly praying to you for forgiveness,

34 listen to them in heaven. Forgive the sins of your people and bring them back to the land which you gave to their ancestors.

35 “When you hold back the rain because your people have sinned against you, and then when they repent and face this Temple, humbly praying to you,

36 listen to them in heaven. Forgive the sins of the king and of the people of Israel, and teach them to do what is right. Then, O Lord, send rain on this land of yours, which you gave to your people as a permanent possession.

37 “When there is famine in the land or an epidemic or the crops are destroyed by scorching winds or swarms of locusts, or when your people are attacked by their enemies, or when there is disease or sickness among them,

38 listen to their prayers. If any of your people Israel, out of heartfelt sorrow, stretch out their hands in prayer toward this Temple,

39 hear their prayer. Listen to them in your home in heaven, forgive them, and help them. You alone know the thoughts of the human heart. Deal with each person as he deserves,

40 so that your people may obey you all the time they live in the land which you gave to our ancestors.

41-42 “When a foreigner who lives in a distant land hears of your fame and of the great things you have done for your people and comes to worship you and to pray at this Temple,

43 listen to his prayer. In heaven, where you live, hear him and do what he asks you to do, so that all the peoples of the world may know you and obey you, as your people Israel do. Then they will know that this Temple I have built is the place where you are to be worshiped.

44 “When you command your people to go into battle against their enemies and they pray to you, wherever they are, facing this city which you have chosen and this Temple which I have built for you,

45 listen to their prayers. Hear them in heaven and give them victory.

46 “When your people sin against you—and there is no one who does not sin—and in your anger you let their enemies defeat them and take them as prisoners to some other land, even if that land is far away,

47 listen to your people’s prayers. If there in that land they repent and pray to you, confessing how sinful and wicked they have been, hear their prayers, O Lord.

48 If in that land they truly and sincerely repent and pray to you as they face toward this land which you gave to our ancestors, this city which you have chosen, and this Temple which I have built for you,

49 then listen to their prayers. In your home in heaven hear them and be merciful to them.

50 Forgive all their sins and their rebellion against you, and make their enemies treat them with kindness.

51 They are your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt, that blazing furnace.

52 “Sovereign Lord, may you always look with favor on your people Israel and their king, and hear their prayer whenever they call to you for help.

53 You chose them from all the peoples to be your own people, as you told them through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

The Final Prayer

54 After Solomon had finished praying to the Lord, he stood up in front of the altar, where he had been kneeling with uplifted hands.

55 In a loud voice he asked God’s blessings on all the people assembled there. He said,

56 “Praise the Lord who has given his people peace, as he promised he would. He has kept all the generous promises he made through his servant Moses.

57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us;

58 may he make us obedient to him, so that we will always live as he wants us to live, keeping all the laws and commands he gave our ancestors.

59 May the Lord our God remember at all times this prayer and these petitions I have made to him. May he always be merciful to the people of Israel and to their king, according to their daily needs.

60 And so all the nations of the world will know that the Lord alone is God—there is no other.

61 May you, his people, always be faithful to the Lord our God, obeying all his laws and commands as you do today.”

The Dedication of the Temple

62 Then King Solomon and all the people there offered sacrifices to the Lord.

63 He sacrificed 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings. And so the king and all the people dedicated the Temple.

64 That same day he also consecrated the central part of the courtyard, the area in front of the Temple, and then he offered there the sacrifices burned whole, the grain offerings, and the fat of the animals for the fellowship offerings. He did this because the bronze altar was too small for all these offerings.

65 There at the Temple, Solomon and all the people of Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters for sevendays. There was a huge crowd of people from as far away as Hamath Pass in the north and the Egyptian border in the south.

66 On the eighth day Solomon sent the people home. They all praised him and went home happy because of all the blessings that the Lord had given his servant David and his people Israel.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/8-3f36ebf41aaca23423b9c5ea5c8c5c19.mp3?version_id=68—

God Appears to Solomon Again

1 After King Solomon had finished building the Temple and the palace and everything else he wanted to build,

2 the Lord appeared to him again, as he had in Gibeon.

3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer. I consecrate this Temple which you have built as the place where I shall be worshiped forever. I will watch over it and protect it for all time.

4 If you will serve me in honesty and integrity, as your father David did, and if you obey my laws and do everything I have commanded you,

5 I will keep the promise I made to your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants.

6 But if you or your descendants stop following me, disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and worship other gods,

7 then I will remove my people Israel from the land that I have given them. I will also abandon this Temple which I have consecrated as the place where I am to be worshiped. People everywhere will ridicule Israel and treat her with contempt.

8 This Temple will become a pile of ruins,and everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed. ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this Temple?’ they will ask.

9 People will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They gave their allegiance to other gods and worshiped them. That is why the Lord has brought this disaster on them.’”

Solomon’s Agreement with Hiram

10 It took Solomon twenty years to build the Temple and his palace.

11 King Hiram of Tyre had provided him with all the cedar and pine and with all the gold he wanted for this work. After it was finished, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the region of Galilee.

12 Hiram went to see them, and he did not like them.

13 So he said to Solomon, “So these, my brother, are the towns you have given me!” For this reason the area is still called Cabul.

14 Hiram had sent Solomon almost five tons of gold.

Further Achievements of Solomon

15 King Solomon used forced labor to build the Temple and the palace, to fill in land on the east side of the city, and to build the city wall. He also used it to rebuild the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. (

16 The king of Egypt had attacked Gezer and captured it, killing its inhabitants and setting fire to the city. Then he gave it as a wedding present to his daughter when she married Solomon,

17 and Solomon rebuilt it.) Using his forced labor, Solomon also rebuilt Lower Beth Horon,

18 Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness of Judah,

19 the cities where his supplies were kept, the cities for his horses and chariots, and everything else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and elsewhere in his kingdom.

20-21 For his forced labor Solomon used the descendants of the people of Canaan whom the Israelites had not killed when they took possession of their land. These included Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, whose descendants continue to be slaves down to the present time.

22 Solomon did not make slaves of Israelites; they served as his soldiers, officers, commanders, chariot captains, and cavalry.

23 There were 550 officials in charge of the forced labor working on Solomon’s various building projects.

24 Solomon filled in the land on the east side of the city, after his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, had moved from David’s City to the palace Solomon built for her.

25 Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built to the Lord. He also burned incenseto the Lord. And so he finished building the Temple.

26 King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Eziongeber, which is near Elath on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land of Edom.

27 King Hiram sent some experienced sailors from his fleet to serve with Solomon’s men.

28 They sailed to the land of Ophir and brought back to Solomon about sixteen tons of gold.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/9-fba138023f177fc1cc60cb7e6979aa6d.mp3?version_id=68—

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba

1 The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame,and she traveled to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions.

2 She brought with her a large group of attendants, as well as camels loaded with spices, jewels, and a large amount of gold. When she and Solomon met, she asked him all the questions that she could think of.

3 He answered them all; there was nothing too difficult for him to explain.

4 The queen of Sheba heard Solomon’s wisdom and saw the palace he had built.

5 She saw the food that was served at his table, the living quarters for his officials, the organization of his palace staff and the uniforms they wore, the servants who waited on him at feasts, and the sacrifices he offered in the Temple. It left her breathless and amazed.

6 She said to King Solomon, “What I heard in my own country about youand your wisdom is true!

7 But I couldn’t believe it until I had come and seen it all for myself. But I didn’t hear even half of it; your wisdom and wealth are much greater than what I was told.

8 How fortunate are your wives!And how fortunate your servants, who are always in your presence and are privileged to hear your wise sayings!

9 Praise the Lord your God! He has shown how pleased he is with you by making you king of Israel. Because his love for Israel is eternal, he has made you their king so that you can maintain law and justice.”

10 She presented to King Solomon the gifts she had brought: almost five tons of gold and a very large amount of spices and jewels. The amount of spices she gave him was by far the greatest that he ever received at any time.

(

11 Hiram’s fleet, which had brought gold from Ophir, also brought from there a large amount of juniper wood and jewels.

12 Solomon used the wood to build railings in the Temple and the palace, and also to make harps and lyres for the musicians. It was the finest juniper wood ever imported into Israel; none like it has ever been seen again.)

13 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she asked for, besides all the other customary gifts that he had generously given her. Then she and her attendants returned to the land of Sheba.

King Solomon’s Wealth

14 Every year King Solomon received over twenty-five tons of gold,

15 in addition to the taxespaid by merchants, the profits from trade, and tribute paid by the Arabian kings and the governors of the Israelite districts.

16 Solomon made two hundred large shields and had each one overlaid with almost fifteen pounds of gold.

17 He also made three hundred smaller shields, overlaying each one of them with nearly four pounds of gold. He had all these shields placed in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon.

18 He also had a large throne made. Part of it was covered with ivory and the rest of it was covered with the finest gold.

19-20 The throne had six steps leading up to it, with the figure of a lion at each end of every step, a total of twelve lions. At the back of the throne was the figure of a bull’s head, and beside each of the two armrests was the figure of a lion. No throne like this had ever existed in any other kingdom.

21 All of Solomon’s drinking cups were made of gold, and all the utensils in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. No silver was used, since it was not considered valuable in Solomon’s day.

22 He had a fleet of ocean-going ships sailing with Hiram’s fleet. Every three years his fleet would return, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

23 King Solomon was richer and wiser than any other king,

24 and the whole world wanted to come and listen to the wisdom that God had given him.

25 Everyone who came brought him a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons, spices, horses, and mules. This continued year after year.

26 Solomon built up a force of fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand cavalry horses. Some of them he kept in Jerusalem and the rest he stationed in various other cities.

27 During his reign silver was as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedar was as plentiful as ordinary sycamore in the foothills of Judah.

28 The king’s agents controlled the export of horses from Musriand Cilicia,

29 and the export of chariots from Egypt. They supplied the Hittite and Syrian kings with horses and chariots, selling chariots for 600 pieces of silver each and horses for 150 each.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/10-3d7b4c1807c8312dcaa5c226cc31f237.mp3?version_id=68—

Solomon Turns Away from God

1 Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the daughter of the king of Egypt he married Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon.

2 He married them even though the Lord had commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with these people, because they would cause the Israelites to give their loyalty to other gods.

3 Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also had three hundred concubines. They made him turn away from God,

4 and by the time he was old they had led him into the worship of foreign gods. He was not faithful to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.

5 He worshiped Astarte, the goddess of Sidon, and Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon.

6 He sinned against the Lord and was not true to him as his father David had been.

7 On the mountain east of Jerusalem he built a place to worship Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and a place to worship Molech, the disgusting god of Ammon.

8 He also built places of worship where all his foreign wives could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their own gods.

9-10 Even though the Lord, the God of Israel, had appeared to Solomon twice and had commanded him not to worship foreign gods, Solomon did not obey the Lord but turned away from him. So the Lord was angry with Solomon

11 and said to him, “Because you have deliberately broken your covenant with me and disobeyed my commands, I promise that I will take the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your officials.

12 However, for the sake of your father David I will not do this in your lifetime, but during the reign of your son.

13 And I will not take the whole kingdom away from him; instead, I will leave him one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have made my own.”

Solomon’s Enemies

14 So the Lord caused Hadad, of the royal family of Edom, to turn against Solomon.

15-16 Long before this, when David had conquered Edom, Joab the commander of his army had gone there to bury the dead. He and his men remained in Edom six months, and during that time they killed every male in Edom

17 except Hadad and some of his father’s Edomite servants, who escaped to Egypt. (At that time Hadad was just a child.)

18 They left Midian and went to Paran, where some other men joined them. Then they traveled to Egypt and went to the king, who gave Hadad some land and a house and provided him with food.

19 Hadad won the friendship of the king, and the king gave his sister-in-law, the sister of Queen Tahpenes, to Hadad in marriage.

20 She bore him a son, Genubath, who was raised by the queen in the palace, where he lived with the king’s sons.

21 When the news reached Hadad in Egypt that David had died and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to the king, “Let me go back to my own country.”

22 “Why?” the king asked. “Have I failed to give you something? Is that why you want to go back home?”

“Just let me go,” Hadad answered the king. And he went back to his country.

As king of Edom, Hadad was an evil, bitter enemy of Israel.

23 God also caused Rezon son of Eliada to turn against Solomon. Rezon had fled from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah,

24 and had become the leader of a gang of outlaws. (This happened after David had defeated Hadadezer and had slaughtered his Syrian allies.) Rezon and his gang went and lived in Damascus, where his followers made him king of Syria.

25 He was an enemy of Israel during the lifetime of Solomon.

God’s Promise to Jeroboam

26 Another man who turned against King Solomon was one of his officials, Jeroboam son of Nebat, from Zeredah in Ephraim. His mother was a widow named Zeruah.

27 This is the story of the revolt.

Solomon was filling in the land on the east side of Jerusalem and repairing the city walls.

28 Jeroboam was an able young man, and when Solomon noticed how hard he worked, he put him in charge of all the forced labor in the territory of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim.

29 One day, as Jeroboam was traveling from Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh met him alone on the road in the open country.

30 Ahijah took off the new robe he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces,

31 and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, because the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, ‘I am going to take the kingdom away from Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes.

32 Solomon will keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen to be my own from the whole land of Israel.

33 I am going to do this because Solomon has rejected me and hasworshiped foreign gods: Astarte, the goddess of Sidon; Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Molech, the god of Ammon. Solomon hasdisobeyed me; he has done wrong and has not kept my laws and commands as his father David did.

34 But I will not take the whole kingdom away from Solomon, and I will keep him in power as long as he lives. This I will do for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose and who obeyed my laws and commands.

35 I will take the kingdom away from Solomon’s son and will give you ten tribes,

36 but I will let Solomon’s son keep one tribe, so that I will always have a descendant of my servant David ruling in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as the place where I am worshiped.

37 Jeroboam, I will make you king of Israel, and you will rule over all the territory that you want.

38 If you obey me completely, live by my laws, and win my approval by doing what I command, as my servant David did, I will always be with you. I will make you king of Israel and will make sure that your descendants rule after you, just as I have done for David.

39 Because of Solomon’s sin I will punish the descendants of David, but not for all time.’”

40 And so Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but he escaped to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until Solomon’s death.

The Death of Solomon

41 Everything else that Solomon did, his career, and his wisdom, are all recorded inThe History of Solomon.

42 He was king in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.

43 He died and was buried in David’s City, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/11-92c5bcd8e2d861f4d0422a20814d5221.mp3?version_id=68—

The Northern Tribes Revolt

1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the people of northern Israel had gathered to make him king.

2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had gone to Egypt to escape from King Solomon, heard this news, he returned fromEgypt.

3 The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and then they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him,

4 “Your father Solomon treated us harshly and placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”

5 “Come back in three days and I will give you my answer,” he replied. So they left.

6 King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon’s advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.

7 They replied, “If you want to serve this people well, give a favorable answer to their request, and they will always serve you loyally.”

8 But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers.

9 “What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”

10 They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!’

11 Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I’ll flog you with bullwhips!’”

12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them.

13 The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the people,

14 as the younger men had advised. He said, “My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I’ll flog you with bullwhips!”

15 It was the will of the Lord to bring about what he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. This is why the king did not pay any attention to the people.

16 When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let’s go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!”

So the people of Israel rebelled,

17 leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, to go to the Israelites, but they stoned him to death. At this, Rehoboam hurriedly got in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem.

19 Ever since that time the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been in rebellion against the dynasty of David.

20 When the people of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, they invited him to a meeting of the people and made him king of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to David’s descendants.

Shemaiah’s Prophecy

21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he called together 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He intended to go to war and restore his control over the northern tribes of Israel.

22 But God told the prophet Shemaiah

23 to give this message to Rehoboam and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin:

24 “Do not attack your own relatives, the people of Israel. Go home, all of you. What has happened is my will.” They all obeyed the Lord’s command and went back home.

Jeroboam Turns Away from God

25 King Jeroboam of Israel fortified the town of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there for a while. Then he left and fortified the town of Penuel.

26-27 He said to himself, “As things are now, if my people go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to the Lord in the Temple there, they will transfer their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah and will kill me.”

28 After thinking it over, he made two bull-calves of gold and said to his people, “You have been going long enough to Jerusalem to worship. People of Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt!”

29 He placed one of the gold bull-calves in Bethel and the other in Dan.

30 And so the people sinned, going to worship in Bethel and in Dan.

31 Jeroboam also built places of worship on hilltops, and he chose priests from families who were not of the tribe of Levi.

Worship at Bethel Is Condemned

32 Jeroboam also instituted a religious festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival in Judah. On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the gold bull-calves he had made, and he placed there in Bethel the priests serving at the places of worship he had built.

33 And on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the day that he himself had set, he went to Bethel and offered a sacrifice on the altar in celebration of the festival he had instituted for the people of Israel.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/12-3a76bb9cc32a6aef85d50301f8b755e0.mp3?version_id=68—

1 At the Lord’s command a prophet from Judah went to Bethel and arrived there as Jeroboam stood at the altar to offer the sacrifice.

2 Following the Lord’s command, the prophet denounced the altar: “O altar, altar, this is what the Lord says: A child, whose name will be Josiah, will be born to the family of David. He will slaughter on you the priests serving at the pagan altars who offer sacrifices on you, and he will burn human bones on you.”

3 And the prophet went on to say, “This altar will fall apart, and the ashes on it will be scattered. Then you will know that the Lord has spoken through me.”

4 When King Jeroboam heard this, he pointed at him and ordered, “Seize that man!” At once the king’s arm became paralyzed so that he couldn’t pull it back.

5 The altar suddenly fell apart and the ashes spilled to the ground, as the prophet had predicted in the name of the Lord.

6 King Jeroboam said to the prophet, “Please pray for me to the Lord your God, and ask him to heal my arm!”

The prophet prayed to the Lord, and the king’s arm was healed.

7 Then the king said to the prophet, “Come home with me and have something to eat. I will reward you for what you have done.”

8 The prophet answered, “Even if you gave me half of your wealth, I would not go with you or eat or drink anything with you.

9 The Lord has commanded me not to eat or drink a thing, and not to return home the same way I came.”

10 So he did not go back the same way he had come, but by another road.

The Old Prophet of Bethel

11 At that time there was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sonscame and told him what the prophet from Judah had done in Bethel that day and what he had said to King Jeroboam.

12 “Which way did he go when he left?” the old prophet asked them. They showed himthe road

13 and he told them to saddle his donkey for him. They did so, and he rode off

14 down the road after the prophet from Judah and found him sitting under an oak tree. “Are you the prophet from Judah?” he asked.

“I am,” the man answered.

15 “Come home and have a meal with me,” he said.

16 But the prophet from Judah answered, “I can’t go home with you or accept your hospitality. And I won’t eat or drink anything with you here,

17 because the Lord has commanded me not to eat or drink a thing, and not to return home the same way I came.”

18 Then the old prophet from Bethel said to him, “I, too, am a prophet just like you, and at the Lord’s command an angel told me to take you home with me and offer you my hospitality.” But the old prophet was lying.

19 So the prophet from Judah went home with the old prophet and had a meal with him.

20 As they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet,

21 and he cried out to the prophet from Judah, “The Lord says that you disobeyed him and did not do what he commanded.

22 Instead, you returned and ate a meal in a place he had ordered you not to eat in. Because of this you will be killed, and your body will not be buried in your family grave.”

23 After they had finished eating, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet from Judah,

24 who rode off. On the way a lion met him and killed him. His body lay on the road, and the donkey and the lion stood beside it.

25 Some men passed by and saw the body on the road, with the lion standing near by. They went on into Bethel and reported what they had seen.

26 When the old prophet heard about it, he said, “That is the prophet who disobeyed the Lord’s command! And so the Lord sent the lion to attack and kill him, just as the Lord said he would.”

27 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey for me.” They did so,

28 and he rode off and found the prophet’s body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion still standing by it. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey.

29 The old prophet picked up the body, put it on the donkey, and brought it back to Bethel to mourn over it and bury it.

30 He buried it in his own family grave, and he and his sons mourned over it, saying, “Oh my brother, my brother!”

31 After the burial the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in this grave and lay my body next to his.

32 The words that he spoke at the Lord’s command against the altar in Bethel and against all the places of worship in the towns of Samaria will surely come true.”

Jeroboam’s Fatal Sin

33 King Jeroboam of Israel still did not turn from his evil ways but continued to choose priests from ordinary families to serve at the altars he had built. He ordained as priest anyone who wanted to be one.

34 This sin on his part brought about the ruin and total destruction of his dynasty.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/363/32k/1KI/13-f90f826c2655727615574093c3044a87.mp3?version_id=68—