Category: 1 Kings

[7:39] – 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.

[7:46] The king had it all made in the foundry between Sukkoth and Zarethan, in the Jordan Valley.

[7:47] Solomon did not have these bronze objects weighed, because there were too many of them, and so their weight was never determined.

[7:48] Solomon also had gold furnishings made for the Temple: the altar, the table for the bread offered to God,

[7:49] 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;

[7:50] 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.

[7:51] 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.

[8:1] 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.

[8:2] They all assembled during the Festival of Shelters in the seventh month, in the month of Ethanim.

[8:3] When all the leaders had gathered, the priests lifted the Covenant Box

[8:4] 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.

[8:5] 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.

[8:6] Then the priests carried the Covenant Box into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures.

[8:7] Their outstretched wings covered the box and the poles it was carried by.

[8:8] 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.)

[8:9] 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.

[8:10] As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud

[8:11] shining with the dazzling light of the Lord's presence, and they could not go back in to perform their duties.

[8:12] Then Solomon prayed: “You, Lord, have placed the sun in the sky, yet you have chosen to live in clouds and darkness.

[8:13] Now I have built a majestic temple for you, a place for you to live in forever.”

[8:14] As the people stood there, King Solomon turned to face them, and he asked God's blessing on them.

[8:15] He said, “Praise the Lord God of Israel! He has kept the promise he made to my father David, when he told him,

[8:16] ‘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.’”

[8:17] And Solomon continued, “My father David planned to build a temple for the worship of the Lord God of Israel,

[8:18] but the Lord said to him, ‘You were right in wanting to build a temple for me,

[8:19] but you will never build it. It is your son, your own son, who will build my temple.’

[8:20] “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.

[8:21] 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.”

[8:22] Then in the presence of the people Solomon went and stood in front of the altar, where he raised his arms

[8:23] 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.

[8:24] You have kept the promise you made to my father David; today every word has been fulfilled.

[8:25] 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.

[8:26] So now, O God of Israel, let everything come true that you promised to my father David, your servant.

[8:27] “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?

[8:28] Lord my God, I am your servant. Listen to my prayer, and grant the requests I make to you today.

[8:29] 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.

[8:30] 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.

[8:31] “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,

[8:32] O Lord, listen in heaven and judge your servants. Punish the guilty one as he deserves, and acquit the one who is innocent.

[8:33] “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,

[8:34] listen to them in heaven. Forgive the sins of your people and bring them back to the land which you gave to their ancestors.

[8:35] “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,

[8:36] 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.

[8:37] “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,

[8:38] listen to their prayers. If any of your people Israel, out of heartfelt sorrow, stretch out their hands in prayer toward this Temple,

[8:39] 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,

[8:40] so that your people may obey you all the time they live in the land which you gave to our ancestors.

[8:43] 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.

[8:44] “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,

[8:45] listen to their prayers. Hear them in heaven and give them victory.

[8:46] “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,

[8:47] 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.

[8:48] 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,

[8:49] then listen to their prayers. In your home in heaven hear them and be merciful to them.

[8:50] Forgive all their sins and their rebellion against you, and make their enemies treat them with kindness.

[8:51] They are your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt, that blazing furnace.

[8:52] “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.

[8:53] 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.”

[8:54] After Solomon had finished praying to the Lord, he stood up in front of the altar, where he had been kneeling with uplifted hands.

[8:55] In a loud voice he asked God's blessings on all the people assembled there. He said,

[8:56] “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.

[8:57] May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us;

[8:58] 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.

[8:59] 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.

[8:60] And so all the nations of the world will know that the Lord alone is God—there is no other.

[8:61] May you, his people, always be faithful to the Lord our God, obeying all his laws and commands as you do today.”

[8:62] Then King Solomon and all the people there offered sacrifices to the Lord.

[8:63] 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.

[8:64] 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.

[8:65] There at the Temple, Solomon 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.

[8:66] 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.

[9:1] After King Solomon had finished building the Temple and the palace and everything else he wanted to build,

[9:2] the Lord appeared to him again, as he had in Gibeon.

[9:3] 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.

[9:4] 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,

[9:5] I will keep the promise I made to your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants.

[9:6] But if you or your descendants stop following me, disobey the laws and commands I have given you, and worship other gods,

[9:7] 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.

[9:8] 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.

[9:9] 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.’”

[9:10] It took Solomon twenty years to build the Temple and his palace.

[9:11] 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.

[9:12] Hiram went to see them, and he did not like them.

[9:13] 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.

[9:14] Hiram had sent Solomon almost five tons of gold.

[9:15] 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. (

[9:16] 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,

[9:17] and Solomon rebuilt it.) Using his forced labor, Solomon also rebuilt Lower Beth Horon,

[9:18] Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness of Judah,

[9:19] 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.

[9:22] Solomon did not make slaves of Israelites; they served as his soldiers, officers, commanders, chariot captains, and cavalry.

[9:23] There were 550 officials in charge of the forced labor working on Solomon's various building projects.

[9:24] 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.

[9:25] Three 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.

[9:26] 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.

[9:27] King Hiram sent some experienced sailors from his fleet to serve with Solomon's men.

[9:28] They sailed to the land of Ophir and brought back to Solomon about sixteen tons of gold.

[10:1] The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, and she traveled to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions.

[10:2] 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.

[10:3] He answered them all; there was nothing too difficult for him to explain.

[10:4] The queen of Sheba heard Solomon's wisdom and saw the palace he had built.

[10:5] 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.

[10:6] She said to King Solomon, “What I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom is true!

[10:7] 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.

[10:8] How fortunate are your wives! And how fortunate your servants, who are always in your presence and are privileged to hear your wise sayings!

[10:9] 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.”

[10:10] 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. (

[10:11] Hiram's fleet, which had brought gold from Ophir, also brought from there a large amount of juniper wood and jewels.

[10:12] 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.)

[10:13] 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.