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1 KIN G S 9
of the altar of the Lord, where he had been
kneeling with his hands raised toward heaven.
55 He stood and in a loud voice blessed the entire
congregation of Israel:
56 “Praise the Lord who has given rest to his
people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word
has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave
through his servant Moses. 57 May the Lord our
God be with us as he was with our ancestors;
may he never leave us or abandon us. 58 May he
give us the desire to do his will in everything
and to obey all the commands, decrees, and
regulations that he gave our ancestors. 59 And
may these words that I have prayed in the presence of the Lord be before him constantly, day
and night, so that the Lord our God may give
justice to me and to his people Israel, according
to each day’s needs. 60 Then people all over the
earth will know that the Lord alone is God and
there is no other. 61 And may you be completely
faithful to the Lord our God. May you always
obey his decrees and commands, just as you are
doing today.”
62 Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices to the Lord. 63 Solomon offered
to the Lord a peace offering of 22,000 cattle and
120,000 sheep and goats. And so the king and
all the people of Israel dedicated the Temple of
the Lord.
64 That same day the king consecrated the
central area of the courtyard in front of the
Lord’s Temple. He offered burnt offerings,
grain offerings, and the fat of peace offerings
there, because the bronze altar in the Lord’s
presence was too small to hold all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace
offerings.
65 Then Solomon and all Israel celebrated
the Festival of Shelters* in the presence of
the Lord our God. A large congregation had
gathered from as far away as Lebo-hamath in
the north and the Brook of Egypt in the south.
The celebration went on for fourteen days in
all—seven days for the dedication of the altar
and seven days for the Festival of Shelters.*
66 After the festival was over,* Solomon sent the
people home. They blessed the king and went to
their homes joyful and glad because the Lord
had been good to his servant David and to his
people Israel.
The LORD’s Response to Solomon
So Solomon finished building the Temple
of the Lord, as well as the royal palace. He
completed everything he had planned to do.
2 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second
time, as he had done before at Gibeon. 3 The
Lord said to him,
9
“I have heard your prayer and your petition.
I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this
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place you have built where my name will be
honored forever. I will always watch over it,
for it is dear to my heart.
4 “As for you, if you will follow me with
integrity and godliness, as David your father
did, obeying all my commands, decrees,
and regulations, 5 then I will establish the
throne of your dynasty over Israel forever.
For I made this promise to your father,
David: ‘One of your descendants will always
sit on the throne of Israel.’
6 “But if you or your descendants
abandon me and disobey the commands
and decrees I have given you, and if you
serve and worship other gods, 7 then I will
uproot Israel from this land that I have
given them. I will reject this Temple that I
have made holy to honor my name. I will
make Israel an object of mockery and
ridicule among the nations. 8 And though
this Temple is impressive now, all who
pass by will be appalled and will gasp in
horror. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord
do such terrible things to this land and to
this Temple?’
9 “And the answer will be, ‘Because his
people abandoned the Lord their God,
who brought their ancestors out of Egypt,
and they worshiped other gods instead and
bowed down to them. That is why the Lord
has brought all these disasters on them.’”
Solomon’s Agreement with Hiram
10 It took Solomon twenty years to build the
Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace. At
the end of that time, 11 he gave twenty towns
in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre.
(Hiram had previously provided all the cedar
and cypress timber and gold that Solomon
had requested.) 12 But when Hiram came from
Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him,
he was not at all pleased with them. 13 “What
kind of towns are these, my brother?” he asked.
So Hiram called that area Cabul (which means
“worthless”), as it is still known today. 14 Nevertheless, Hiram paid* Solomon 9,000 pounds*
of gold.
Solomon’s Many Achievements
15 This is the account of the forced labor that King
Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s Temple,
the royal palace, the supporting terraces,* the
wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. 16 (Pharaoh, the king of Egypt,
had attacked and captured Gezer, killing the
Canaanite population and burning it down. He
8:65a Hebrew the festival; see note on 8:2. 8:65b Hebrew
seven days and seven days, fourteen days; compare parallel
text at 2 Chr 7:8-10. 8:66 Hebrew On the eighth day, probably
referring to the day following the seven-day Festival of
Shelters; compare parallel text at 2 Chr 7:9-10. 9:14a Or For
Hiram had paid. 9:14b Hebrew 120 talents [4,000 kilograms].
9:15 Hebrew the millo; also in 9:24. The meaning of the
Hebrew is uncertain.