Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 63
2C
| 1:3–2:2
C hronicles – E Z R A – N E H E M I A H
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captains of the army, the judges, and all the political and clan leaders. Then
he led the entire assembly to the place of worship in Gibeon, for God’s
Tabernacle was located there. (This was the Tabernacle that Moses, the
Lord’s servant, had made in the wilderness.)
David had already moved the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the
tent he had prepared for it in Jerusalem. But the bronze altar made by
Bezalel son of Uri and grandson of Hur was there at Gibeon in front of the
Tabernacle of the Lord. So Solomon and the people gathered in front of
it to consult the Lord. There in front of the Tabernacle, Solomon went
up to the bronze altar in the Lord’s presence and sacrificed 1,000 burnt
offerings on it.
That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “What do you want?
Ask, and I will give it to you!”
Solomon replied to God, “You showed great and faithful love to David,
my father, and now you have made me king in his place. O Lord God,
please continue to keep your promise to David my father, for you have
made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth! Give me
the wisdom and knowledge to lead them properly, for who could possibly
govern this great people of yours?”
God said to Solomon, “Because your greatest desire is to help your
people, and you did not ask for wealth, riches, fame, or even the death of
your enemies or a long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge
to properly govern my p eople—I will certainly give you the wisdom and
knowledge you requested. But I will also give you wealth, riches, and fame
such as no other king has had before you or will ever have in the future!”
Then Solomon returned to Jerusalem from the Tabernacle at the place
of worship in Gibeon, and he reigned over Israel.
Solomon built up a huge force of chariots and horses. He had 1,400
chariots and 12,000 horses. He stationed some of them in the chariot cities
and some near him in Jerusalem. The king made silver and gold as plentiful
in Jerusalem as stone. And valuable cedar timber was as common as the
sycamore-fig trees that grow in the foothills of Judah. Solomon’s horses
were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia; the king’s traders acquired
them from Cilicia at the standard price. At that time chariots from Egypt
could be purchased for 600 pieces of silver, and horses for 150 pieces of
silver. They were then exported to the kings of the Hittites and the kings
of Aram.
Solomon decided to build a Temple to honor the name of the Lord,
and also a royal palace for himself. He enlisted a force of 70,000 laborers,
80,000 men to quarry stone in the hill country, and 3,600 foremen.
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