The First Book of Kings, starting at chapter 7
{7:1} Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he
finished all his house. {7:2} For he built the house of the forest of
Lebanon; the length of it was one hundred cubits, and the breadth of
it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits, on four rows of
cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars. {7:3} It was covered
with cedar above over the forty-five beams, that were on the pillars;
fifteen in a row. {7:4} There were beams in three rows, and window was
over against window in three ranks. {7:5} All the doors and posts were
made square with beams: and window was over against window in three
ranks. {7:6} He made the porch of pillars; the length of it was fifty
cubits, and the breadth of it thirty cubits; and a porch before them;
and pillars and a threshold before them. {7:7} He made the porch of
the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment: and it
was covered with cedar from floor to floor. {7:8} His house where he
was to dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the like work.
He made also a house for Pharaoh's daughter (whom Solomon had taken as
wife), like this porch. {7:9} All these were of costly stones, even of
hewn stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside,
even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the
great court. {7:10} The foundation was of costly stones, even great
stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits. {7:11} Above
were costly stones, even hewn stone, according to measure, and cedar
wood. {7:12} The great court round about had three courses of hewn
stone, and a course of cedar beams; like as the inner court of the
house of Yahweh, and the porch of the house. {7:13} King Solomon sent
and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. {7:14} He was the son of a widow of the
tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in
brass; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill, to
work all works in brass. He came to king Solomon, and performed all
his work. {7:15} For he fashioned the two pillars of brass, eighteen
cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits compassed either of
them about. {7:16} He made two capitals of molten brass, to set on the
tops of the pillars: the height of the one capital was five cubits,
and the height of the other capital was five cubits. {7:17} There were
nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the capitals
which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital, and
seven for the other capital. {7:18} So he made the pillars; and there
were two rows round about on the one network, to cover the capitals
that were on the top of the pillars: and so did he for the other
capital. {7:19} The capitals that were on the top of the pillars in
the porch were of lily work, four cubits. {7:20} There were capitals
above also on the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the
network: and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about on
the other capital. {7:21} He set up the pillars at the porch of the
temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name of it
Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called the name of it Boaz.
{7:22} On the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the
pillars finished. {7:23} He made the molten sea of ten cubits from
brim to brim, round in compass, and the height of it was five cubits;
and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about. {7:24} Under the
brim of it round about there were buds which did compass it, for ten
cubits, compassing the sea round about: the buds were in two rows,
cast when it was cast. {7:25} It stood on twelve oxen, three looking
toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking
toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was
set on them above, and all their hinder parts were inward. {7:26} It
was a handbreadth thick: and the brim of it was worked like the brim
of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it held two thousand baths.
{7:27} He made the ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of
one base, and four cubits the breadth of it, and three cubits the
height of it. {7:28} The work of the bases was on this manner: they
had panels; and there were panels between the ledges; {7:29} and on
the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and
cherubim; and on the ledges there was a pedestal above; and beneath
the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. {7:30} Every base had
four bronze wheels, and axles of brass; and the four feet of it had
supports: beneath the basin were the supports molten, with wreaths at
the side of each. {7:31} The mouth of it within the capital and above
was a cubit: and the mouth of it was round after the work of a
pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on the mouth of it were
engravings, and their panels were foursquare, not round. {7:32} The
four wheels were underneath the panels; and the axles of the wheels
were in the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a
cubit. {7:33} The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot
wheel: their axles, and their rims, and their spokes, and their naves,
were all molten. {7:34} There were four supports at the four corners
of each base: the supports of it were of the base itself. {7:35} In
the top of the base was there a round compass half a cubit high; and
on the top of the base the stays of it and the panels of it were of
the same. {7:36} On the plates of the stays of it, and on the panels
of it, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the
space of each, with wreaths round about. {7:37} After this manner he
made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one
form. {7:38} He made ten basins of brass: one basin contained forty
baths; and every basin was four cubits; and on very one of the ten
bases one basin. {7:39} He set the bases, five on the right side of
the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea
on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south. {7:40}
Hiram made the basins, and the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram made
an end of doing all the work that he worked for king Solomon in the
house of Yahweh: {7:41} the two pillars, and the two bowls of the
capitals that were on the top of the pillars; and the two networks to
cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the
pillars; {7:42} and the four hundred pomegranates for the two
networks; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two
bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars; {7:43} and the ten
bases, and the ten basins on the bases; {7:44} and the one sea, and
the twelve oxen under the sea; {7:45} and the pots, and the shovels,
and the basins: even all these vessels, which Hiram made for king
Solomon, in the house of Yahweh, were of burnished brass. {7:46} In
the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground
between Succoth and Zarethan. {7:47} Solomon left all the vessels
[unweighed], because they were exceeding many: the weight of the brass
could not be found out. {7:48} Solomon made all the vessels that were
in the house of Yahweh: the golden altar, and the table whereupon the
show bread was, of gold; {7:49} and the lampstands, five on the right
side, and five on the left, before the oracle, of pure gold; and the
flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold; {7:50} and the cups,
and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and the fire pans,
of pure gold; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house,
the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, [to wit], of the
temple, of gold. {7:51} Thus all the work that king Solomon worked in
the house of Yahweh was finished. Solomon brought in the things which
David his father had dedicated, [even] the silver, and the gold, and
the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of Yahweh.
{8:1} Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the
heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' [houses] of the
children of Israel, to king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark
of the covenant of Yahweh out of the city of David, which is Zion.
{8:2} All the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at
the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. {8:3} All
the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. {8:4} They
brought up the ark of Yahweh, and the tent of meeting, and all the
holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these did the priests and the
Levites bring up. {8:5} King Solomon and all the congregation of
Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark,
sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be counted nor numbered for
multitude. {8:6} The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of
Yahweh to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy
place, even under the wings of the cherubim. {8:7} For the cherubim
spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim
covered the ark and the poles of it above. {8:8} The poles were so
long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before
the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there they are to this
day. {8:9} There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone
which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the
children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. {8:10} It
came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that
the cloud filled the house of Yahweh, {8:11} so that the priests could
not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Yahweh
filled the house of Yahweh. {8:12} Then spoke Solomon, Yahweh has said
that he would dwell in the thick darkness. {8:13} I have surely built
you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever. {8:14}
The king turned his face about, and blessed all the assembly of
Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood. {8:15} He said, Blessed
be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your
father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying, {8:16} Since the
day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no
city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name
might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel. {8:17}
Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the
name of Yahweh, the God of Israel. {8:18} But Yahweh said to David my
father, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you
did well that it was in your heart: {8:19} nevertheless you shall not
build the house; but your son who shall come forth out of your body,
he shall build the house for my name. {8:20} Yahweh has established
his word that he spoke; for I am risen up in the room of David my
father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have
built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel. {8:21}
There have I set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of
Yahweh, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of
the land of Egypt. {8:22} Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in
the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands
toward heaven; {8:23} and he said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is
no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keep
covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you
with all their heart; {8:24} who have kept with your servant David my
father that which you did promise him: yes, you spoke with your mouth,
and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day. {8:25} Now
therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my
father that which you have promised him, saying, There shall not fail
you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your
children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked
before me. {8:26} Now therefore, God of Israel, Please let your word
be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father. {8:27}
But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? behold, heaven and the
heaven of heavens can't contain you; how much less this house that I
have built! {8:28} Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant,
and for his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to
the prayer which your servant prays before you this day; {8:29} that
your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the
place of which you have said, My name shall be there; to listen to the
prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place. {8:30} Listen
you to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel,
when they shall pray toward this place: yes, hear in heaven, your
dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive. {8:31} If a man sin
against his neighbor, and an oath be laid on him to cause him to
swear, and he come [and] swear before your altar in this house; {8:32}
then hear you in heaven, and do, and judge your servants, condemning
the wicked, to bring his way on his own head, and justifying the
righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. {8:33} When
your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they have
sinned against you; if they turn again to you, and confess your name,
and pray and make supplication to you in this house: {8:34} then hear
you in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring
them again to the land which you gave to their fathers. {8:35} When
the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned
against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name,
and turn from their sin, when you do afflict them: {8:36} then hear in
heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people
Israel, when you teach 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. {8:37} If there be in the land famine, if there be
pestilence, if there is blight [or] mildew, locust [or] caterpillar;
if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever
plague, whatever sickness there be; {8:38} whatever prayer and
supplication be made by any man, [or] by all your people Israel, who
shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his
hands toward this house: {8:39} then hear in heaven, your dwelling
place, and forgive, and do, and render to every man according to all
his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the
hearts of all the children of men;) {8:40} that they may fear you all
the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.
{8:41} Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people
Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for your name's sake
{8:42} (for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty
hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he shall come and pray
toward this house; {8:43} hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do
according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the
peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as does your
people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have
built is called by my name. {8:44} If your people go out to battle
against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they
pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the
house which I have built for your name; {8:45} then hear in heaven
their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. {8:46}
If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you
are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry
them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; {8:47}
yet if they shall repent themselves in the land where they are carried
captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of
those who carried them captive, saying, We have sinned, and have done
perversely, we have dealt wickedly; {8:48} if they return to you with
all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies,
who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you
gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house
which I have built for your name: {8:49} then hear you their prayer
and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain
their cause; {8:50} and forgive your people who have sinned against
you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed
against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them
captive, that they may have compassion on them {8:51} (for they are
your people, and your inheritance, which you brought forth out of
Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron); {8:52} that your eyes
may be open to the supplication of your servant, and to the
supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they
cry to you. {8:53} For you did separate them from among all the
peoples of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses
your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh.
{8:54} It was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all
this prayer and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before the altar
of Yahweh, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth
toward heaven. {8:55} He stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel
with a loud voice, saying, {8:56} Blessed be Yahweh, who has given
rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there
has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by
Moses his servant. {8:57} Yahweh our God be with us, as he was with
our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us; {8:58} that he may
incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his
commandments, and his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded
our fathers. {8:59} Let these my words, with which I have made
supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night,
that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people
Israel, as every day shall require; {8:60} that all the peoples of the
earth may know that Yahweh, he is God; there is none else. {8:61} Let
your heart therefore be perfect with Yahweh our God, to walk in his
statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day. {8:62} The
king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before Yahweh. {8:63}
Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered
to Yahweh, two and twenty thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty
thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated
the house of Yahweh. {8:64} The same day did the king make the middle
of the court holy that was before the house of Yahweh; for there he
offered the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the
peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before Yahweh was
too little to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and
the fat of the peace offerings. {8:65} So Solomon held the feast at
that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the
entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, seven
days and seven days, even fourteen days. {8:66} On the eighth day he
sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their
tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that Yahweh had
shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people.
{9:1} It happened, when Solomon had finished the building of the
house of Yahweh, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which
he was pleased to do, {9:2} that Yahweh appeared to Solomon the second
time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. {9:3} Yahweh said to him, I
have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made
before me: I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put
my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there
perpetually. {9:4} As for you, if you will walk before me, as David
your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do
according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes
and my ordinances; {9:5} then I will establish the throne of your
kingdom over Israel forever, according as I promised to David your
father, saying, There shall not fail you a man on the throne of
Israel. {9:6} But if you shall turn away from following me, you or
your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I
have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods, and worship
them; {9:7} then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have
given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I
cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among
all peoples. {9:8} Though this house is so high, yet shall everyone
who passes by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say,
Why has Yahweh done thus to this land, and to this house? {9:9} and
they shall answer, Because they forsook Yahweh their God, who brought
forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other
gods, and worshiped them, and served them: therefore has Yahweh
brought all this evil on them. {9:10} It happened at the end of twenty
years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Yahweh
and the king's house {9:11} (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. {9:12} Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities
which Solomon had given him; and they didn't please him. {9:13} He
said, What cities are these which you have given me, my brother? He
called them the land of Cabul to this day. {9:14} Hiram sent to the
king one hundred twenty talents of gold. {9:15} This is the reason of
the levy which king Solomon raised, to build the house of Yahweh, and
his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and
Megiddo, and Gezer. {9:16} Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and
taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites who
lived in the city, and given it for a portion to his daughter,
Solomon's wife. {9:17} Solomon built Gezer, and Beth Horon the lower,
{9:18} and Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land, {9:19}
and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his
chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon
desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in
all the land of his dominion. {9:20} As for all the people who were
left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and
the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel; {9:21} their
children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of
Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them did Solomon raise a
levy of bondservants to this day. {9:22} But of the children of Israel
did Solomon make no bondservants; but they were the men of war, and
his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his
chariots and of his horsemen. {9:23} These were the chief officers who
were over Solomon's work, five hundred fifty, who bore rule over the
people who labored in the work. {9:24} But Pharaoh's daughter came up
out of the city of David to her house which [Solomon] had built for
her: then did he build Millo. {9:25} Three times a year did Solomon
offer burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built
to Yahweh, burning incense therewith, [on the altar] that was before
Yahweh. So he finished the house. {9:26} King Solomon made a navy of
ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the
[1>]Red Sea[<1], in the land of Edom. {9:27} Hiram sent in the navy
his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants
of Solomon. {9:28} They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold,
four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] {9:26} or, Sea of Reeds
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