God Appears to Solomon Again

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

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

³The 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.

⁴If 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,

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

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

⁷then 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.

⁸This 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.

⁹People 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

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

¹¹King 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.

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

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

¹⁴Hiram had sent Solomon almost five tons of gold.

Further Achievements of Solomon

¹⁵King 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,

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

¹⁸Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness of Judah,

¹⁹the 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.

^20-21For 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.

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

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

²⁴Solomon 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.

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

²⁶King 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.

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

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

Don't Make Rash Promises

¹Be careful about going to the Temple. It is better to go there to learn than to offer sacrifices like foolish people who don't know right from wrong.

²Think before you speak, and don't make any rash promises to God. He is in heaven and you are on earth, so don't say any more than you have to.

³The more you worry, the more likely you are to have bad dreams, and the more you talk, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

⁴So when you make a promise to God, keep it as quickly as possible. He has no use for a fool. Do what you promise to do.

⁵Better not to promise at all than to make a promise and not keep it.

⁶Don't let your own words lead you into sin, so that you have to tell God's priest that you didn't mean it. Why make God angry with you? Why let him destroy what you have worked for?

⁷No matter how much you dream, how much useless work you do, or how much you talk, you must still stand in awe of God.

Life Is Useless

⁸Don't be surprised when you see that the government oppresses the poor and denies them justice and their rights. Every official is protected by someone higher, and both are protected by still higher officials.

⁹Even a king depends on the harvest.

¹⁰If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless.

¹¹The richer you are, the more mouths you have to feed. All you gain is the knowledge that you are rich.

¹²Workers may or may not have enough to eat, but at least they can get a good night's sleep. The rich, however, have so much that they stay awake worrying.

¹³Here is a terrible thing that I have seen in this world: people save up their money for a time when they may need it,

¹⁴and then lose it all in some bad deal and end up with nothing left to pass on to their children.

¹⁵We leave this world just as we entered it—with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us.

¹⁶It isn't right! We go just as we came. We labor, trying to catch the wind, and what do we get?

¹⁷We get to live our lives in darkness and grief, worried, angry, and sick.

¹⁸Here is what I have found out: the best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for during the short life that God has given us; this is our fate.

¹⁹If God gives us wealth and property and lets us enjoy them, we should be grateful and enjoy what we have worked for. It is a gift from God.

²⁰Since God has allowed us to be happy, we will not worry too much about how short life is.

¹I have noticed that in this world a serious injustice is done.

²God will give us wealth, honor, and property, yes, everything we want, but then will not let us enjoy it. Some stranger will enjoy it instead. It is useless, and it just isn't right.

³We may have a hundred children and live a long time, but no matter how long we live, if we do not get our share of happiness and do not receive a decent burial, then I say that a baby born dead is better off.

⁴It does that baby no good to be born; it disappears into darkness, where it is forgotten.

⁵It never sees the light of day or knows what life is like, but at least it has found rest—

⁶more so than the man who never enjoys life, though he may live two thousand years. After all, both of them are going to the same place.

⁷We do all our work just to get something to eat, but we never have enough.

⁸How are the wise better off than fools? What good does it do the poor to know how to face life?

⁹It is useless; it is like chasing the wind. It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else.

¹⁰Everything that happens was already determined long ago, and we all know that you cannot argue with someone who is stronger than you.

¹¹The longer you argue, the more useless it is, and you are no better off.

¹²How can anyone know what is best for us in this short, useless life of ours—a life that passes like a shadow? How can we know what will happen in the world after we die?

A Prayer for Justice

¹O Lord, my God, I come to you for protection; rescue me and save me from all who pursue me,

²or else like a lion they will carry me off where no one can save me, and there they will tear me to pieces.

^3-4O Lord, my God, if I have wronged anyone, if I have betrayed a friend or without cause done violence to my enemy— if I have done any of these things—

⁵then let my enemies pursue me and catch me, let them cut me down and kill me and leave me lifeless on the ground!

⁶Rise in your anger, O Lord! Stand up against the fury of my enemies; rouse yourself and help me! Justice is what you demand,

⁷so bring together all the peoples around you, and rule over them from above.

⁸You are the judge of all people. Judge in my favor, O Lord; you know that I am innocent.

⁹You are a righteous God and judge our thoughts and desires. Stop the wickedness of evildoers and reward those who are good.

¹⁰God is my protector; he saves those who obey him.

¹¹God is a righteous judge and always condemns the wicked.

¹²If they do not change their ways, God will sharpen his sword. He bends his bow and makes it ready;

¹³he takes up his deadly weapons and aims his burning arrows.

¹⁴See how wicked people think up evil; they plan trouble and practice deception.

¹⁵But in the traps they set for others, they themselves get caught.

¹⁶So they are punished by their own evil and are hurt by their own violence.

¹⁷I thank the Lord for his justice; I sing praises to the Lord, the Most High.