Chapter 5

The Ark Is Brought into the Temple

1 aThus all the work that Solomon performed for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the 1bthings that David his father had dedicated, even the silver and the gold and all the utensils, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

2 aThen Solomon assembled to Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ households of the sons of Israel, bto bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.

3 aAll the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at bthe feast, that is in the seventh month.

4 Then all the elders of Israel came, and athe Levites took up the ark.

5 They brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils which were in the tent; the Levitical priests brought them up.

6 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing 1so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

7 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the holy of holies, under the wings of the cherubim.

8 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its 1poles.

9 The poles were so long that athe ends of the poles of the ark could be seen in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; and 1they are there to this day.

10 aThere was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

The Glory of God Fills the Temple

11 When the priests came forth from the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard ato divisions),

12 and all the Levitical singers, aAsaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, bwith cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests cblowing trumpets

13 in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice aaccompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, “bHe indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud,

14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for athe glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Chapter 6

Solomon’s Dedication

1 aThen Solomon said,

“The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

2 “I have built You a lofty house,

And a place for Your dwelling forever.”

3 Then the king 1faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.

4 He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hands, saying,

5 ‘Since the day that I brought My people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man for a leader over My people Israel;

6 but aI have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I bhave chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

7 “aNow it was 1in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

8 “But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was 1in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was 1in your heart.

9 ‘Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who 1will be born to you, he shall build the house for My name.’

10 “Now the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord 1promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

11 “There I have set the ark ain which is the covenant of the Lord, which He made with the sons of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

12 Then he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

13 aNow Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, bknelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.

14 He said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, athere is no god like You in heaven or on earth, bkeeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;

15 awho has kept with Your servant David, my father, that which You have 1promised him; indeed You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.

16 “Now therefore, O Lord, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David, my father, that which You have 1promised him, saying, ‘2aYou shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’

17 “Now therefore, O Lord, the God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant David.

18 “But awill God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, bheaven and the 1highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built.

19 “Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You;

20 that Your aeye may be open toward this house day and night, toward bthe place of which You have said that You would put Your name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

21 “Listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; ahear and forgive.

22 “If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house,

23 then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, 1apunishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

24 “If Your people Israel 1are defeated before an enemy because athey have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house,

25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to them and to their fathers.

26 “When the aheavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them;

27 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, ateach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.

28 “If there is afamine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their 1cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is,

29 whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, 1each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house,

30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know afor You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,

31 that they may 1fear You, to walk in Your ways 2as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

32 “Also concerning athe foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name’s sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house,

33 then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and 1fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that 2this house which I have built is acalled by Your name.

34 “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name,

35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

36 “When they sin against You (afor there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that 1they take them away captive to a land far off or near,

37 if they 1take thought in the land where they are taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly’;

38 aif they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which You have given to their fathers and the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name,

39 then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications, and maintain their cause and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.

40 “Now, O my God, I pray, alet Your eyes be open and bYour ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

41 “aNow therefore arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good.

42 “O Lord God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; aremember Your lovingkindness to Your servant David.”

Chapter 7

The Shekinah Glory

1 aNow when Solomon had finished praying, bfire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

2 aThe priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.

3 All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord, saying, “aTruly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Sacrifices Offered

4 aThen the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord.

5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

6 The priests stood at their posts, and athe Levites also, with the instruments of music to the Lord, which King David had made for giving praise to the Lord—“for His lovingkindness is everlasting”—whenever 1he gave praise by their 2means, while bthe priests on the other side blew trumpets; and all Israel was standing.

7 aThen Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat.

The Feast of Dedication

8 So aSolomon observed the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly who came from the entrance of Hamath to the bbrook of Egypt.

9 On the eighth day they held aa solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar they observed seven days and the feast seven days.

10 Then on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their tents, rejoicing and happy of heart because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and to Solomon and to His people Israel.

God’s Promise and Warning

11 aThus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s palace, and successfully completed all that 1he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and in his palace.

12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and ahave chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

13 “aIf I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,

14 aand My people 1who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

15 “aNow My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the 1prayer offered in this place.

16 “For anow I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

17 “As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, even to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances,

18 then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘1aYou shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.’

19 “aBut if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

20 athen I will uproot you from My land which I have given 1you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it ba proverb and a byword among all peoples.

21 “As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘aWhy has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’

22 “And they will say, ‘Because athey forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.’ ”

Chapter 8

Solomon’s Activities and Accomplishments

1 aNow it came about at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house

2 that he built the cities which Huram had given to 1him, and settled the sons of Israel there.

3 Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it.

4 He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities which he had built in Hamath.

5 He also built upper aBeth-horon and lower Beth-horon, bfortified cities with walls, gates and bars;

6 and Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for 1his chariots and cities for 1his horsemen, and all that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land 2under his rule.

7 aAll of the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,

8 namely, from their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of Israel had not destroyed, athem Solomon raised as forced laborers to this day.

9 But Solomon did not make slaves for his work from the sons of Israel; they were men of war, his chief captains and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.

10 These were the chief 1officers of King Solomon, two hundred and fifty who ruled over the people.

11 aThen Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because 1the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered.”

12 Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on athe altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch;

13 and adid so according to the daily rule, offering them up baccording to the commandment of Moses, for cthe sabbaths, dthe new moons and the ethree annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths.

14 Now according to the ordinance of his father David, he appointed athe divisions of the priests for their service, and bthe Levites for their duties of praise and ministering before the priests according to the daily rule, and cthe gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for dDavid the man of God had so commanded.

15 And they did not depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any manner or concerning the storehouses.

16 Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out 1from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

17 Then Solomon went to aEzion-geber and to bEloth on the seashore in the land of Edom.

18 And Huram by his servants sent him ships and servants who knew the sea; and they went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, and atook from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.

Chapter 9

Visit of the Queen of Sheba

1 aNow when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions. She had a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and a large amount of gold and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was on her heart.

2 Solomon 1answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from Solomon which he did not 2explain to her.

3 When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he had built,

4 the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and 1his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, she was breathless.

5 Then she said to the king, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom.

6 “Nevertheless I did not believe their reports until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpass the report that I heard.

7 “How 1blessed are your men, how 1blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom.

8 “Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you, asetting you on His throne as king for the Lord your God; bbecause your God loved Israel establishing them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.”

9 Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great amount of spices and precious stones; there had never been spice like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

10 The servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon awho brought gold from Ophir, also brought algum trees and precious stones.

11 From the algum trees the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king’s palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; and none like that was seen before in the land of Judah.

12 King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested besides a return for what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and went to her own land with her servants.

Solomon’s Wealth and Power

13 aNow the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold,

14 besides that which the traders and merchants brought; and all athe kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

15 King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold, 1using 600 shekels of beaten gold on each large shield.

16 He made 300 shields of beaten gold, 1using three hundred shekels of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

17 Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

18 There were six steps to the throne and a footstool in gold attached to the throne, and 1arms 2on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the 1arms.

19 Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other; nothing like it was made for any other kingdom.

20 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered 1valuable in the days of Solomon.

21 aFor the king had ships which went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks.

22 aSo King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

23 And all the kings of the earth were seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.

24 aThey brought every man his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.

25 Now Solomon had a4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

26 aHe was the ruler over all the kings from the Euphrates River even to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt.

27 aThe king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the 1lowland.

28 aAnd they were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all countries.

29 aNow the rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, bare they not written in the 1records of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of 2Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

30 aSolomon reigned forty years in Jerusalem over all Israel.

Death of Solomon

31 And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in athe city of his father David; and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.