Category: 2 Chronicles

[7:1] When 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.

[7:2] Because the Temple was full of the dazzling light, the priests could not enter it.

[7:3] When 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.

[7:4] Then Solomon and all the people offered sacrifices to the Lord.

[7:5] He sacrificed 22,000 head of cattle and 120,000 sheep as fellowship offerings. And so he and all the people dedicated the Temple.

[7:6] The 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.

[7:7] Solomon 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.

[7:8] 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.

[7:9] They 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,

[7:10] and 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.

[7:11] After King Solomon had finished the Temple and the palace, successfully completing all his plans for them,

[7:12] the 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.

[7:13] Whenever I hold back the rain or send locusts to eat up the crops or send an epidemic on my people,

[7:14] if 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.

[7:15] I will watch over this Temple and be ready to hear all the prayers that are offered here,

[7:16] because 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.

[7:17] If you serve me faithfully as your father David did, obeying my laws and doing everything I have commanded you,

[7:18] I will keep the promise I made to your father David when I told him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants.

[7:19] But if you and your people ever disobey the laws and commands I have given you and worship other gods,

[7:20] then 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.

[7:21] “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?’

[7:22] 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.’”

[8:1] It took Solomon twenty years to build the Temple and his palace.

[8:2] He also rebuilt the cities that King Hiram had given him, and sent Israelites to settle in them.

[8:3] He captured the territory of Hamath and Zobah

[8:4] and fortified the city of Palmyra in the desert. He rebuilt all the cities in Hamath that were centers for storing supplies.

[8:5] Solomon also rebuilt the following cities: Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon (fortified cities with gates that could be barred),

[8:6] the 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.

[8:9] Israelites were not used at forced labor, but served as soldiers, officers, chariot commanders, and cavalry troops.

[8:10] There were 250 officials in charge of the forced labor working on the various building projects.

[8:11] Solomon 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.”

[8:12] Solomon offered sacrifices to the Lord on the altar which he had built in front of the Temple.

[8:13] He 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.

[8:14] Following 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.

[8:15] The instructions which David had given the priests and the Levites concerning the storehouses and other matters were carried out in detail.

[8:16] By 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.

[8:17] Then Solomon went to Eziongeber and Elath, ports on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land of Edom.

[8:18] King 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.

[9:1] The queen of Sheba heard of King Solomon's fame, and she traveled to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions. 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.

[9:2] He answered them all; there was nothing too difficult for him to explain.

[9:3] The queen of Sheba heard Solomon's wisdom and saw the palace he had built.

[9:4] 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 clothing of the servants who waited on him at feasts, and the sacrifices he offered in the Temple. It left her breathless and amazed.

[9:5] She said to the king, “What I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom is true!

[9:6] I did not believe what they told me until I came and saw for myself. I had not heard of even half your wisdom. You are even wiser than people say.

[9:7] How fortunate are those who serve you, who are always in your presence and are privileged to hear your wise sayings!

[9:8] Praise the Lord your God! He has shown how pleased he is with you by making you king, to rule in his name. Because he loves his people Israel and wants to preserve them forever, he has made you their king so that you can maintain law and justice.”

[9:9] She presented to King Solomon the gifts she had brought: almost five tons of gold and a very large amount of spices and jewels. There have never been any other spices as fine as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. (

[9:10] The sailors of King Hiram and of King Solomon who brought gold from Ophir also brought juniper wood and jewels.

[9:11] Solomon used the wood to make stairs for the Temple and for his palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. Nothing like that had ever been seen before in the land of Judah.)

[9:12] King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she asked for. This was in addition to what he gave her in exchange for the gifts she brought to him. Then she and her attendants returned to the land of Sheba.

[9:13] Every year King Solomon received over twenty-five tons of gold,

[9:14] in addition to the taxes paid by the traders and merchants. The kings of Arabia and the governors of the Israelite districts also brought him silver and gold.

[9:15] Solomon made two hundred large shields, each of which was covered with about fifteen pounds of beaten gold,

[9:16] and three hundred smaller shields, each covered with about eight pounds of beaten gold. He had them all placed in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon.

[9:17] The king also had a large throne made. Part of it was covered with ivory and the rest of it was covered with pure gold.

[9:18] Six steps led up to the throne, and there was a footstool attached to it, covered with gold. There were arms on each side of the throne, and the figure of a lion stood at each side.

[9:19] Twelve figures of lions were on the steps, one at either end of each step. No throne like this had ever existed in any other kingdom.

[9:20] All of King Solomon's drinking cups were made of gold, and all the utensils in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. Silver was not considered valuable in Solomon's day.

[9:21] He had a fleet of ocean-going ships sailing with King Hiram's fleet. Every three years his fleet would return, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

[9:22] King Solomon was richer and wiser than any other king in the world.

[9:23] They all consulted him, to hear the wisdom that God had given him.

[9:24] Each of them brought Solomon gifts—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons, spices, horses, and mules. This continued year after year.

[9:25] King Solomon also had four thousand stalls for his chariots and horses, and had twelve thousand cavalry horses. Some of them he kept in Jerusalem and the rest he stationed in various other cities.

[9:26] He was supreme ruler of all the kings in the territory from the Euphrates River to Philistia and the Egyptian border.

[9:27] During his reign silver was as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedar was as plentiful as ordinary sycamore in the foothills of Judah.

[9:28] Solomon imported horses from Musri and from every other country.

[9:29] The rest of the history of Solomon from beginning to end is recorded in The History of Nathan the Prophet, in The Prophecy of Ahijah of Shiloh, and in The Visions of Iddo the Prophet, which also deal with the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel.

[9:30] Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.

[9:31] He died and was buried in David's City, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

[10:1] Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the people of northern Israel had gathered to make him king.

[10:2] When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had gone to Egypt to escape from King Solomon, heard this news, he returned home.

[10:3] The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him,

[10:4] “Your father placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”

[10:5] Rehoboam replied, “Give me three days to consider the matter. Then come back.” So the people left.

[10:6] King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon's advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.

[10:7] They replied, “If you are kind to these people and try to please them by giving a considerate answer, they will always serve you loyally.”

[10:8] But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers.

[10:9] “What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”

[10:10] They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.’

[10:11] Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!’”

[10:12] Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them.

[10:13] The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the people,

[10:14] as the younger men had advised. He said, “My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!”

[10:15] It was the will of the Lord God to bring about what he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. This is why the king did not pay any attention to the people.

[10:16] When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let's go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!” So the people of Israel rebelled,

[10:17] leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

[10:18] Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, to go to the Israelites, but they stoned him to death. At this, Rehoboam hurriedly got in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem.

[10:19] Ever since that time the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been in rebellion against the dynasty of David.

[11:1] When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he called together 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. He intended to go to war and restore his control over the northern tribes of Israel.

[11:2] But the Lord told the prophet Shemaiah

[11:3] to give this message to King Rehoboam and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin:

[11:4] “Do not attack your own relatives. Go home, all of you. What has happened is my will.” They obeyed the Lord's command and did not go to fight Jeroboam.

[11:5] Rehoboam remained in Jerusalem and had fortifications built for the following cities of Judah and Benjamin:

[11:6] Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

[11:7] Bethzur, Soco, Adullam,

[11:8] Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

[11:9] Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

[11:10] Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron.

[11:11] He had them strongly fortified and appointed a commander for each of them, and in each one he placed supplies of food, olive oil, and wine,

[11:12] and also shields and spears. In this way he kept Judah and Benjamin under his control.

[11:13] From all the territory of Israel priests and Levites came south to Judah.

[11:14] The Levites abandoned their pastures and other land and moved to Judah and Jerusalem, because King Jeroboam of Israel and his successors would not let them serve as priests of the Lord.

[11:15] Jeroboam appointed priests of his own to serve at the pagan places of worship and to worship demons and the idols he made in the form of bull-calves.

[11:16] From all the tribes of Israel people who sincerely wanted to worship the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem, so that they could offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

[11:17] This strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they supported Rehoboam son of Solomon and lived as they had under the rule of King David and King Solomon.