David's Last Instructions to Solomon

¹When David was about to die, he called his son Solomon and gave him his last instructions:

²“My time to die has come. Be confident and determined,

³and do what the Lord your God orders you to do. Obey all his laws and commands, as written in the Law of Moses, so that wherever you go you may prosper in everything you do.

⁴If you obey him, the Lord will keep the promise he made when he told me that my descendants would rule Israel as long as they were careful to obey his commands faithfully with all their heart and soul.

⁵“There is something else. You remember what Joab did to me by killing the two commanders of Israel's armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. You remember how he murdered them in time of peace as revenge for deaths they had caused in time of war. He killed innocent men, and now I bear the responsibility for what he did, and I suffer the consequences.

⁶You know what to do; you must not let him die a natural death.

⁷“But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai from Gilead and take care of them, because they were kind to me when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom.

⁸“There is also Shimei son of Gera, from the town of Bahurim in Benjamin. He cursed me bitterly the day I went to Mahanaim, but when he met me at the Jordan River, I gave him my solemn promise in the name of the Lord that I would not have him killed.

⁹But you must not let him go unpunished. You know what to do, and you must see to it that he is put to death.”

The Death of David

¹⁰David died and was buried in David's City.

¹¹He had been king of Israel for forty years, ruling seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

¹²Solomon succeeded his father David as king, and his royal power was firmly established.

The Death of Adonijah

¹³Then Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, went to Bathsheba, who was Solomon's mother. “Is this a friendly visit?” she asked. “It is,” he answered,

¹⁴and then he added, “I have something to ask of you.” “What is it?” she asked.

¹⁵He answered, “You know that I should have become king and that everyone in Israel expected it. But it happened differently, and my brother became king because it was the Lord's will.

¹⁶And now I have one request to make; please do not refuse me.” “What is it?” Bathsheba asked.

¹⁷He answered, “Please ask King Solomon—I know he won't refuse you—to let me have Abishag, the young woman from Shunem, as my wife.”

¹⁸“Very well,” she answered. “I will speak to the king for you.”

¹⁹So Bathsheba went to the king to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. The king stood up to greet his mother and bowed to her. Then he sat on his throne and had another one brought in on which she sat at his right.

²⁰She said, “I have a small favor to ask of you; please do not refuse me.” “What is it, mother?” he asked. “I will not refuse you.”

²¹She answered, “Let your brother Adonijah have Abishag as his wife.”

²²“Why do you ask me to give Abishag to him?” the king asked. “You might as well ask me to give him the throne too. After all, he is my older brother, and Abiathar the priest and Joab are on his side!”

²³Then Solomon made a solemn promise in the Lord's name, “May God strike me dead if I don't make Adonijah pay with his life for asking this!

²⁴The Lord has firmly established me on the throne of my father David; he has kept his promise and given the kingdom to me and my descendants. I swear by the living Lord that Adonijah will die this very day!”

²⁵So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah, who went out and killed Adonijah.

Abiathar's Banishment and Joab's Death

²⁶Then King Solomon said to Abiathar the priest, “Go to your country home in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not have you put to death now, for you were in charge of the Lord's Covenant Box while you were with my father David, and you shared in all his troubles.”

²⁷Then Solomon dismissed Abiathar from serving as a priest of the Lord, and so made come true what the Lord had said in Shiloh about the priest Eli and his descendants.

²⁸Joab heard what had happened. (He had supported Adonijah, but not Absalom.) So he fled to the Tent of the Lord's presence and took hold of the corners of the altar.

²⁹When the news reached King Solomon that Joab had fled to the Tent and was by the altar, Solomon sent a messenger to Joab to ask him why he had fled to the altar. Joab answered that he had fled to the Lord because he was afraid of Solomon. So King Solomon sent Benaiah to kill Joab.

³⁰He went to the Tent of the Lord's presence and said to Joab, “The king orders you to come out.” “No,” Joab answered. “I will die here.” Benaiah went back to the king and told him what Joab had said.

³¹“Do what Joab says,” Solomon answered. “Kill him and bury him. Then neither I nor any other of David's descendants will any longer be held responsible for what Joab did when he killed innocent men.

³²The Lord will punish Joab for those murders, which he committed without my father David's knowledge. Joab killed two innocent men who were better men than he: Abner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa, commander of the army of Judah.

³³The punishment for their murders will fall on Joab and on his descendants forever. But the Lord will always give success to David's descendants who sit on his throne.”

³⁴So Benaiah went to the Tent of the Lord's presence and killed Joab, and he was buried at his home in the open country.

³⁵The king made Benaiah commander of the army in Joab's place and put Zadok the priest in Abiathar's place.

The Death of Shimei

³⁶Then the king sent for Shimei and said to him, “Build a house for yourself here in Jerusalem. Live in it and don't leave the city.

³⁷If you ever leave and go beyond Kidron Brook, you will certainly die—and you yourself will be to blame.”

³⁸“Very well, Your Majesty,” Shimei answered. “I will do what you say.” So he lived in Jerusalem a long time.

³⁹Three years later, however, two of Shimei's slaves ran away to the king of Gath, Achish son of Maacah. When Shimei heard that they were in Gath,

⁴⁰he saddled his donkey and went to King Achish in Gath, to find his slaves. He found them and brought them back home.

⁴¹When Solomon heard what Shimei had done,

⁴²he sent for him and said, “I made you promise in the Lord's name not to leave Jerusalem. And I warned you that if you ever did, you would certainly die. Did you not agree to it and say that you would obey me?

⁴³Why, then, have you broken your promise and disobeyed my command?

⁴⁴You know very well all the wrong that you did to my father David. The Lord will punish you for it.

⁴⁵But he will bless me, and he will make David's kingdom secure forever.”

⁴⁶Then the king gave orders to Benaiah, who went out and killed Shimei. Solomon was now in complete control.

Preparations for Building the Temple

¹King Solomon decided to build a temple where the Lord would be worshiped, and also to build a palace for himself.

²He put 70,000 men to work transporting materials, and 80,000 to work cutting stone in the hill country. There were 3,600 others responsible for supervising the work.

³Solomon sent a message to King Hiram of Tyre: “Do business with me as you did with my father, King David, when you sold him cedar logs for building his palace.

⁴I am building a temple to honor the Lord my God. It will be a holy place where my people and I will worship him by burning incense of fragrant spices, where we will present offerings of sacred bread to him continuously, and where we will offer burnt offerings every morning and evening, as well as on Sabbaths, New Moon Festivals, and other holy days honoring the Lord our God. He has commanded Israel to do this forever.

⁵I intend to build a great temple, because our God is greater than any other god.

⁶Yet no one can really build a temple for God, because even all the vastness of heaven cannot contain him. How then can I build a temple that would be anything more than a place to burn incense to God?

⁷Now send me a man with skill in engraving, in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in making blue, purple, and red cloth. He will work with the craftsmen of Judah and Jerusalem whom my father David selected.

⁸I know how skillful your lumbermen are, so send me cedar, cypress, and juniper logs from Lebanon. I am ready to send my men to assist yours

⁹in preparing large quantities of timber, because this temple I intend to build will be large and magnificent.

¹⁰As provisions for your lumbermen, I will send you 100,000 bushels of wheat, 100,000 bushels of barley, 110,000 gallons of wine, and 110,000 gallons of olive oil.”

¹¹King Hiram sent Solomon a letter in reply. He wrote, “Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you their king.

¹²Praise the Lord God of Israel, Creator of heaven and earth! He has given King David a wise son, full of understanding and skill, who now plans to build a temple for the Lord and a palace for himself.

¹³I am sending you a wise and skillful master metalworker named Huram.

¹⁴His mother was a member of the tribe of Dan and his father was a native of Tyre. He knows how to make things out of gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood. He can work with blue, purple, and red cloth, and with linen. He can do all sorts of engraving and can follow any design suggested to him. Let him work with your skilled workers and with those who worked for your father, King David.

¹⁵So now send us the wheat, barley, wine, and olive oil that you promised.

¹⁶In the mountains of Lebanon we will cut down all the cedars you need, tie them together in rafts, and float them by sea as far as Joppa. From there you can take them to Jerusalem.”

Construction of the Temple Begins

¹⁷King Solomon took a census of all the foreigners living in the land of Israel, similar to the census his father David had taken. There were 153,600 resident foreigners.

¹⁸He assigned 70,000 of them to transport materials and 80,000 to cut stones in the mountains, and appointed 3,600 supervisors to make sure the work was done.

¹King David, Solomon's father, had already prepared a place for the Temple. It was in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David, at the place which Araunah the Jebusite had used as a threshing place. King Solomon began the construction

²in the second month of the fourth year that he was king.

³The Temple which King Solomon built was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide.

⁴The entrance room was the full width of the Temple, 30 feet, and was 180 feet high. The inside of the room was overlaid with pure gold.

⁵The main room was paneled with cedar and overlaid with fine gold, in which were worked designs of palm trees and chain patterns.

⁶The king decorated the Temple with beautiful precious stones and with gold imported from the land of Parvaim.

⁷He used the gold to overlay the Temple walls, the rafters, the entryways, and the doors. On the walls the workers carved designs of winged creatures.

⁸The inner room, called the Most Holy Place, was 30 feet long and 30 feet wide, which was the full width of the Temple. Twenty-five tons of gold were used to cover the walls of the Most Holy Place;

⁹twenty ounces of gold were used for making nails, and the walls of the upper rooms were also covered with gold.

¹⁰The king also had his workers make two winged creatures out of metal, cover them with gold, and place them in the Most Holy Place,

^11-13where they stood side by side facing the entrance. Each had two wings, each wing 7½ feet long, which were spread out so that they touched each other in the center of the room and reached to the wall on either side of the room, stretching across the full width of 30 feet.

¹⁴A curtain for the Most Holy Place was made of linen and of other material, which was dyed blue, purple, and red, with designs of the winged creatures worked into it.

The Two Bronze Columns

¹⁵The king had two columns made, each one 52 feet tall, and placed them in front of the Temple. Each one had a capital 7½ feet tall.

¹⁶The tops of the columns were decorated with a design of interwoven chains and one hundred bronze pomegranates.

¹⁷The columns were set at the sides of the Temple entrance: the one on the south side was named Jachin and the one on the north side was named Boaz.

Confidence in God's Protection

¹I wait patiently for God to save me; I depend on him alone.

²He alone protects and saves me; he is my defender, and I shall never be defeated.

³How much longer will all of you attack someone who is no stronger than a broken-down fence?

⁴You only want to bring him down from his place of honor; you take pleasure in lies. You speak words of blessing, but in your heart you curse him.

⁵I depend on God alone; I put my hope in him.

⁶He alone protects and saves me; he is my defender, and I shall never be defeated.

⁷My salvation and honor depend on God; he is my strong protector; he is my shelter.

⁸Trust in God at all times, my people. Tell him all your troubles, for he is our refuge.

⁹Human beings are all like a puff of breath; great and small alike are worthless. Put them on the scales, and they weigh nothing; they are lighter than a mere breath.

¹⁰Don't put your trust in violence; don't hope to gain anything by robbery; even if your riches increase, don't depend on them.

¹¹More than once I have heard God say that power belongs to him

¹²and that his love is constant. You yourself, O Lord, reward everyone according to their deeds.