I Kings 9

1. And it came to pass as Solomon finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do,

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

3. And the LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your cry which you have made before Me. I have made holy this house which you have built to put My name there forever. And My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.

4. Now 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 if you will keep My statutes and My judgments,

5. Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever as I promised to David your father, saying, ‘There shall not be cut off from you a man upon the throne of Israel.’

6. If you shall at all turn from following Me, you or your children, and will not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

7. Then I will cut off Israel from the face of the land which I have given them. And this house which I have made holy for My name I will cast out of My sight. And Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people.

8. As to this house which now is exalted, then everyone who passes by it shall be amazed and shall hiss. And they shall say, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?’

9. And they shall answer, ‘Because they left the LORD their God Who brought out their fathers from the land of Egypt, and have taken hold of other gods and have worshiped them and served them. On account of this the LORD has brought upon them all this evil.’ ”

10. And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house.

11. Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desires. Then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

12. And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him. And they did not please him.

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

14. And Hiram sent to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.

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

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

17. And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth Horon the lower,

18. And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land.

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

20. And all the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel,

21. Their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able to destroy completely, upon those Solomon laid a tribute of bond service to this day.

22. But Solomon did not make any slaves out of the children of Israel. But they were men of war, and his servants, and his rulers, and his commanders, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.

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

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

25. And three times in a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he had built to the LORD, and he burned incense upon the altar which was before the LORD. And he finished the house.

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

27. And Hiram sent with the navy his servants, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

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