Solomon Prepares to Build the Temple

¹King 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.

²Solomon 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.

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

⁵The 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.

⁶So 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.”

⁷Hiram 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!”

⁸Then 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.

⁹My 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.”

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

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

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

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

¹⁴and 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.

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

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

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

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

The Dedication of the Temple

¹When King Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and burned up the sacrifices that had been offered, and the dazzling light of the Lord's presence filled the Temple.

²Because the Temple was full of the dazzling light, the priests could not enter it.

³When the people of Israel saw the fire fall from heaven and the light fill the Temple, they fell face downward on the pavement, worshiping God and praising him for his goodness and his eternal love.

⁴Then Solomon and all the people offered sacrifices to the Lord.

⁵He sacrificed 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings. And so he and all the people dedicated the Temple.

⁶The priests stood in the places that were assigned to them, and facing them stood the Levites, praising the Lord with the musical instruments that King David had provided and singing the hymn, “His Love Is Eternal!” as they had been commissioned by David. The priests blew trumpets while all the people stood.

⁷Solomon consecrated the central part of the courtyard, the area in front of the Temple, and then offered there the sacrifices burned whole, the grain offerings, and the fat from the fellowship offerings. He did this because the bronze altar which he had made was too small for all these offerings.

⁸Solomon and all the people of Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters for seven days. There was a huge crowd of people from as far away as Hamath Pass in the north and the Egyptian border in the south.

⁹They had spent seven days for the dedication of the altar and then seven more days for the festival. On the last day they had a closing celebration,

¹⁰and on the following day, the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people home. They were happy about all the blessings that the Lord had given to his people Israel, to David, and to Solomon.

God Appears to Solomon Again

¹¹After King Solomon had finished the Temple and the palace, successfully completing all his plans for them,

¹²the Lord appeared to him at night. He said to him, “I have heard your prayer, and I accept this Temple as the place where sacrifices are to be offered to me.

¹³Whenever I hold back the rain or send locusts to eat up the crops or send an epidemic on my people,

¹⁴if they pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again.

¹⁵I will watch over this Temple and be ready to hear all the prayers that are offered here,

¹⁶because I have chosen it and consecrated it as the place where I will be worshiped forever. I will watch over it and protect it for all time.

¹⁷If you serve me faithfully as your father David did, obeying my laws and doing everything I have commanded you,

¹⁸I will keep the promise I made to your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants.

¹⁹But if you and your people ever disobey the laws and commands I have given you and worship other gods,

²⁰then I will remove you from the land that I gave you, and I will abandon this Temple that I have consecrated as the place where I am to be worshiped. People everywhere will ridicule it and treat it with contempt.

²¹“The Temple is now greatly honored, but then everyone who passes by it will be amazed and will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this Temple?’

²²People 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 Achievements

¹It took Solomon twenty years to build the Temple and his palace.

²He also rebuilt the cities that King Hiram had given him, and sent Israelites to settle in them.

³He captured the territory of Hamath and Zobah

⁴and fortified the city of Palmyra in the desert. He rebuilt all the cities in Hamath that were centers for storing supplies.

⁵Solomon also rebuilt the following cities: Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon (fortified cities with gates that could be barred),

⁶the city of Baalath, all the cities where he stored supplies, and the cities where his horses and chariots were stationed. He carried out all his plans for building in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and throughout the territory that he ruled over.

^7-8Solomon employed at forced labor all the descendants of the people of Canaan whom the Israelites had not killed when they took possession of the land. These included Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, whose descendants continue to be slaves down to the present time.

⁹Israelites were not used at forced labor, but served as soldiers, officers, chariot commanders, and cavalry troops.

¹⁰There were 250 officials in charge of the forced labor working on the various building projects.

¹¹Solomon moved his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt, from David's City to a house he built for her. He said, “She must not live in the palace of King David of Israel, because any place where the Covenant Box has been is holy.”

¹²Solomon offered sacrifices to the Lord on the altar which he had built in front of the Temple.

¹³He offered burnt offerings according to the requirements of the Law of Moses for each holy day: Sabbaths, New Moon Festivals, and the three annual festivals—the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Shelters.

¹⁴Following the rules laid down by his father David, he organized the daily work of the priests and of the Levites who assisted the priests in singing hymns and in doing their work. He also organized the Temple guards in sections for performing their daily duties at each gate, in accordance with the commands of David, the man of God.

¹⁵The instructions which David had given the priests and the Levites concerning the storehouses and other matters were carried out in detail.

¹⁶By this time all of Solomon's projects had been completed. From the laying of the foundation of the Lord's Temple to its completion, all the work had been successful.

¹⁷Then Solomon went to Eziongeber and Elath, ports on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land of Edom.

¹⁸King Hiram sent him ships under the command of his own officers and with experienced sailors. They sailed with Solomon's officers to the land of Ophir and brought back to Solomon about sixteen tons of gold.

A Song of Praise and Thanksgiving

¹Praise God with shouts of joy, all people!

²Sing to the glory of his name; offer him glorious praise!

³Say to God, “How wonderful are the things you do! Your power is so great that your enemies bow down in fear before you.

⁴Everyone on earth worships you; they sing praises to you, they sing praises to your name.”

⁵Come and see what God has done, his wonderful acts among people.

⁶He changed the sea into dry land; our ancestors crossed the river on foot. There we rejoiced because of what he did.

⁷He rules forever by his might and keeps his eyes on the nations. Let no rebels rise against him.

⁸Praise our God, all nations; let your praise be heard.

⁹He has kept us alive and has not allowed us to fall.

¹⁰You have put us to the test, God; as silver is purified by fire, so you have tested us.

¹¹You let us fall into a trap and placed heavy burdens on our backs.

¹²You let our enemies trample us; we went through fire and flood, but now you have brought us to a place of safety.

¹³I will bring burnt offerings to your house; I will offer you what I promised.

¹⁴I will give you what I said I would when I was in trouble.

¹⁵I will offer sheep to be burned on the altar; I will sacrifice bulls and goats, and the smoke will go up to the sky.

¹⁶Come and listen, all who honor God, and I will tell you what he has done for me.

¹⁷I cried to him for help; I praised him with songs.

¹⁸If I had ignored my sins, the Lord would not have listened to me.

¹⁹But God has indeed heard me; he has listened to my prayer.

²⁰I praise God, because he did not reject my prayer or keep back his constant love from me.