1 Kings 9

Solomon finished building the house of the LORD and the king's palace, and he completed everything else he had wanted to build.

1And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do,

Note"The house of the LORD" is the temple in Jerusalem; "the king's house" is the royal palace next to it. Hebrew uses the same word, "house," for both, which is why the two buildings keep being paired in this chapter.

2Then the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, the way he had appeared to him earlier at Gibeon.

2That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.

NoteGibeon was a hilltop sanctuary a few miles northwest of Jerusalem, used for sacrifice before the temple was built. The earlier appearance referred to here is the dream at Gibeon in which Solomon asked for wisdom.

3The LORD said to him, "I have heard the prayer and the request you made to me. I have set apart this house you built as holy, and I have put my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

3And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

NoteTo "put my name there" is an ancient idiom of ownership and claim, like carving your name on a monument: the place is publicly identified as belonging to that god, and is where he can be addressed by name.

4"As for you, if you live your life before me the way your father David lived, with an honest heart and doing what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my rules and my decisions,

4And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:

5then I will make your royal throne over Israel secure forever, just as I promised your father David when I said, 'You will always have a descendant on the throne of Israel.'

5Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

NoteThe Hebrew is literally "a man will not be cut off from you from upon the throne of Israel", a standard way of promising an unbroken succession of descendants, not a promise about one individual.

6"But if you or your children ever turn away from following me, and do not keep the commands and rules I have given you, and instead go and serve other gods and worship them,

6But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:

7then I will remove Israel from the land I gave them, and I will send this house away from my sight, even though I made it holy for my name. Israel will become a saying people repeat and an insult among all nations.

7Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:

NoteA "proverb and a byword" means a stock example, the name people reach for when they want to describe a disaster or a nation that lost everything. The point is public humiliation, not wise sayings.

8And this house, which now stands so high, will be left in such a state that everyone who passes by will be shocked and will whistle in scorn. They will say, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?'

8And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?

NoteHissing, or whistling through the teeth, was the customary noise made at the sight of ruins in the ancient Near East, a sound of shock and derision, not amusement. The Hebrew of "which is high" is difficult; ancient translations read a similar-looking phrase meaning "will become a heap of ruins," which is why translations differ here.

9And people will answer, 'Because they abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they took hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them. That is why the LORD has brought all this trouble on them.'"

9And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.

10Twenty years passed while Solomon was building the two buildings, the house of the LORD and the king's palace.

10And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house,

11Hiram, the king of Tyre, had supplied Solomon with cedar logs, pine logs, and gold, as much as he wanted. So at the end of that time King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the region of Galilee.

11(Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

NoteTyre was a wealthy Phoenician seaport on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel, in what is now Lebanon. Its kings traded timber from the Lebanon mountains (cedar and cypress, which Israel lacked) and its craftsmen and sailors were famous throughout the region.

12Hiram traveled from Tyre to look over the towns Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

12And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.

13He said, "What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?" So he named them the land of Cabul, and they are still called that today.

13And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.

Note"My brother" was the standard diplomatic form of address between kings who dealt with each other as equals under a treaty; it does not mean they were related. "Cabul" sounds in Hebrew like a phrase meaning "like nothing" or "good for nothing," so the name is an insult built on a pun.

14Hiram had sent the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.

14And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

NoteA talent was a weight of roughly seventy-five pounds (about thirty-four kilograms), so a hundred and twenty talents is something over four tons of gold. Gold was weighed, not counted; coinage did not yet exist.

15This is the account of the forced labor King Solomon required: it was used to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

15And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

NoteThe "levy" was corvée, forced unpaid labor owed to the crown for a set period each year, a normal tax on subject populations in the ancient world, distinct from being bought and sold as property. The Millo (the name means roughly "the filling") was an earthwork or stepped stone terracing that supported and fortified part of Jerusalem's slope. Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer were key fortified cities guarding the main trade and invasion routes through the land.

16Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer. He burned it down, killed the Canaanites living in the city, and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon's wife.

16For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

NoteThe Hebrew calls this a "parting gift", property given by a bride's father at her marriage. That an Egyptian pharaoh handed over a captured city this way signals an unusually favorable alliance for Solomon; Egypt normally took foreign brides rather than giving its royal daughters away.

17So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, and also Lower Beth-horon,

17And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether,

18and Baalath, and Tadmor out in the desert, in that land,

18And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,

NoteThe Hebrew text as traditionally written reads "Tamar," a site in the desert south of Judah; the traditional reading aloud is "Tadmor," the oasis city far to the northeast later known as Palmyra. Translations split between the two, and the difference is one letter.

19and all the storage cities he had, and the cities for his chariots and for his horsemen, and whatever else he wanted to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and everywhere he ruled.

19And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

Note"Store cities" were supply depots, fortified towns holding grain, weapons, and equipment for the army and the royal administration.

20There were still people left in the land from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites.

20And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,

NoteThese are the names of the peoples living in the land before Israel's arrival, listed here as a fixed traditional group rather than as five precisely defined nations.

21Their descendants were still in the land, because the Israelites had not been able to destroy them completely. Solomon forced these people to work for him as laborers, and they still do so today.

21Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.

Note"Utterly destroy" translates a Hebrew term meaning to devote something to a god by destroying it, putting it permanently beyond ordinary use, the war practice commanded in the conquest accounts. The verse notes that it was not carried through.

22But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites. They served as his soldiers, his officials, his commanders, his captains, and the officers over his chariots and horsemen.

22But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.

23There were also five hundred and fifty chief officers in charge of Solomon's building projects, and they supervised the people doing the work.

23These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

24Once Pharaoh's daughter moved up from the City of David to the house Solomon had built for her, he built the Millo.

24But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.

NoteThe City of David was the old fortified ridge captured from the Jebusites, the original and lower part of Jerusalem; the temple and palace complex stood on higher ground to the north, which is why she "came up."

25Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, and he burned incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the house.

25And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.

NoteA burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar; a peace offering was an animal partly burned and mostly eaten in a shared meal by the worshipers. "Three times a year" refers to the three annual pilgrimage festivals at which all Israelite men were expected to appear.

26King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

26And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.

NoteEzion-geber and Eloth stood at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, the eastern arm of the Red Sea. The Hebrew name for this water is "the Sea of Reeds"; here it means that gulf, giving Israel access to the trade routes of Arabia and Africa. Israel had no Mediterranean port, so a fleet had to be based at the far southern end of the country.

27Hiram sent his own men to serve in the fleet, sailors who knew the sea, to work alongside Solomon's men.

27And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

28They sailed to Ophir, took on four hundred and twenty talents of gold there, and brought it back to King Solomon.

28And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

NoteOphir was a source of exceptionally fine gold, proverbially so in Hebrew poetry; its location is unknown, with ancient and modern guesses ranging along the coasts of Arabia, East Africa, and India. Four hundred and twenty talents is roughly fifteen tons.