1 KINGS

Chapter 1

¹ When King David was very old, even though his servants put many blankets on top of him at night, he was unable to keep warm. ² So they said to him, "Your Majesty, allow us to search for a young virgin who can stay with you and take care of you. She can sleep close to you and make you warm."

³ The king gave them permission, so they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful young woman. They found a woman named Abishag, from the town of Shunem, and brought her to the king. ⁴ She was truly very beautiful. She took care of the king, but the king did not have sexual relations with her.

^5-6 After Absalom died, David's oldest son was Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith. He was a very handsome man. But David had never rebuked him about anything he did. After Absalom died, he thought that he would become king. So he started to boast, saying, "I will become king now." Then he provided for himself some chariots, and men to drive them, and horses to pull them, and fifty men to run as his bodyguards in front of those chariots wherever he went.

⁷ One day he conferred with Joab, David's army commander, and Abiathar the priest, and they promised to help Adonijah. ⁸ But other important people refused to help him. These included Zadok, who was also a priest, Benaiah who had supervised David's bodyguards, Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Rei, and David's most capable soldiers.

⁹ One day Adonijah went to stone of Zoheleth near En Rogel, which is near Jerusalem, to sacrifice some sheep and oxen and fattened cattle. He invited most of his brothers, King David's other sons, to come. He also invited all of the king's officials from Judah to come to the celebration. ¹⁰ But he did not invite Nathan, Benaiah, or the king's most capable soldiers, or his younger brother Solomon.

¹¹ Nathan found out what they were doing, so he went to Solomon's mother Bathsheba and asked her, "Have you not heard that Haggith's son Adonijah is making himself king? And King David does not know about it! ¹² So if you want to save yourself and your son Solomon from being killed, allow me to tell you what you should do. ¹³ Go right away to King David. Say to him, 'Your Majesty, you solemnly promised me that my son Solomon would become the king after you die and that he would sit on your throne and rule. So why are people saying that Adonijah is now king?' ¹⁴ Then, Bathsheba, while you are still talking to the king, I will come in and tell him that what you are saying to him about Adonijah is true."

¹⁵ So Bathsheba went to see the king in his bedroom. He was very old, and Abishag was taking care of him. ¹⁶ Bathsheba bowed very low in front of the king, and the king asked her, "What do you want?"

¹⁷ She replied, "Your Majesty, you solemnly promised me, knowing that Yahweh our God was listening, that my son Solomon would become king after you die and that he would sit on your throne and rule. ¹⁸ But now, Adonijah has made himself king, and you do not know anything about it. ¹⁹ He has sacrificed a lot of oxen and fattened cattle and sheep, and he has invited all of your other sons to the celebration. He has also invited Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of your army, but he did not invite your son Solomon. ²⁰ Your Majesty, all the people of Israel are expecting you to tell them who is the one who will become king after you are no longer with us. ²¹ If you do not do that, what will happen is that after you die people will consider that my son Solomon and I are rebelling, and they will execute us because we did not help Adonijah to become king."

²² While she was still talking to the king, Nathan came to the palace. ²³ The king's servants told David, "Nathan the prophet has come." So Bathsheba left, and Nathan went into where the king was and knelt down, with his face on the ground.

²⁴ Then Nathan said, "Your Majesty, have you declared that Adonijah will become king after you? ²⁵ I say that because today he has gone down to En Rogel and has sacrificed a lot of oxen, fattened cattle, and sheep. And he has invited all of your other sons, Joab the army commander, and Abiathar the priest. They are all eating and drinking with him and saying, 'We hope that King Adonijah will live a long time!' ²⁶ But he did not invite me or Zadok the priest or Benaiah or Solomon. ²⁷ Did you say that they should do this without telling your other officials who you want to become king after you are no longer the king?"

²⁸ Then King David said, "Tell Bathsheba to come in here again." So someone went and told her, and she came in and stood in front of the king.

^29-30 Then the king said, "Yahweh has rescued me from all my troubles. I promised you, with Yahweh the God whom we Israelites worship listening, that your son Solomon would be king after I am no longer the king. Today, as surely as Yahweh lives, I solemnly declare that I will do what I promised." ³¹ Bathsheba knelt down with her face on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, I hope you will live forever!"

³² Then King David said to a servant, "Summon Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah." So a servant went and summoned them. When they came in, ³³ he said to them, "Put my son Solomon on my mule. Take him with my officials down to the spring at Gihon. ³⁴ There, you two, Zadok and Nathan, must anoint him with olive oil to appoint him to be the king of Israel. Then you two must blow trumpets, and all the people there must shout, 'We hope that King Solomon will live for many years!' ³⁵ Then follow him back here, and he will come and sit on my throne. He will then become king instead of me. I have appointed him to be the ruler of all the people of Israel and of Judah."

³⁶ Benaiah replied, "We will do that! We hope that Yahweh, who is your God and our God, will cause it to happen! ³⁷ King David, Yahweh has helped you. We hope that he will also help Solomon and enable him to become an even greater king than you have been."

³⁸ So Zadok, Nathan, Benaiah, and the two groups of men who were the king's bodyguards went and put Solomon on King David's mule and escorted him down to the spring at Gihon. ³⁹ There Zadok took the container of olive oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon. Then two of them blew trumpets, and all the people shouted, "We hope that King Solomon will live for many years!" ⁴⁰ Then all the people followed him back up to the city, shouting joyfully and playing flutes. They shouted very loudly, so that the ground shook.

⁴¹ When Adonijah and all his guests were finishing eating at their celebration, they heard the noise. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpets, he asked, "What is the meaning of all that noise in the city?"

⁴² While he was still speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest, arrived. Adonijah said, "Come in! You are a man whom we can trust, so you must be bringing us good news!"

⁴³ Jonathan replied, "No, I do not have good news! His Majesty, King David, has made Solomon to be the king! ⁴⁴ He sent Zadok, Nathan, Benaiah, and the his own groups of bodyguards to go with Solomon. They put Solomon on King David's mule. ⁴⁵ They went down to the spring at Gihon, and there Zadok and Nathan have anointed him to become the king. Now they have returned from there to the city, shouting joyfully. That is why there is that great noise that you are hearing. ⁴⁶ So Solomon is now our king. ⁴⁷ Furthermore, the palace officials came to His Majesty, King David, to tell him that they approved of what he had done. They said, 'We wish that God will make Solomon even more famous than you have been and enable him to be an even better king than you have been.' When they said that, the king, lying on his bed, bowed his head to worship Yahweh. ⁴⁸ Then he said, 'I praise Yahweh, the God whom we Israelites worship, because he has allowed one of my sons to become the king today and has permitted me to see it happen.'"

⁴⁹ Then all of Adonijah's guests trembled, so they all immediately got up and left and scattered. ⁵⁰ Adonijah was afraid of what Solomon would do, so he went to the sacred tent and grabbed the projections at the corners of the altar, because he thought that no one would kill him there. ⁵¹ But someone told Solomon, "See, Adonijah is afraid of you, so he has gone to the sacred tent and is holding on to the altar. He is saying, 'Before I leave, I want King Solomon to solemnly promise that he will not command that I be executed.'"

⁵² Solomon replied, "If he proves that he is loyal to me, I will not harm him at all. But if he does anything that is wrong, he will be executed." ⁵³ So King Solomon sent some men to Adonijah, and they brought him back from the altar. He came to Solomon and bowed down in front of him. Then Solomon said to him, "Go home."

Chapter 2

¹ When David knew that he was about to die, he gave these final instructions to his son Solomon:

² "I am about to die, as everyone else on earth does. Be courageous and conduct yourself as man should. ³ Do what Yahweh our God tells you to do. Conduct yourself as he wants you to do. Obey all of his laws and commands and decrees and instructions that are written in the laws that Moses gave us. Do this in order that you will prosper in all that you do and wherever you go. ⁴ If you continually do that, Yahweh will do what he promised me. He said, 'If your descendants do what I tell them to do, and faithfully obey my commands with all their inner beings, they will always be the ones who will rule Israel.'

⁵ There is something else that I want you to do. You know what Joab did to me. He killed my two army commanders, Abner and Amasa. He murdered them violently. He is guilty of murder. ⁶ Because you are wise, do to him what you think is best for you to do, but do not allow him to become old and die peacefully.

⁷ But act kindly toward the sons of Barzillai, the man from the region of Gilead, and be sure that they always have enough food to eat. Do that because Barzillai helped me when I was running away from your older brother Absalom.

⁸ Also, you remember Gera's son Shimei from the town of Bahurim in the area where the descendants of Benjamin live. You know what he did to me. He cursed me terribly on the day I left Jerusalem and went to the town of Mahanaim. But when he later came down to see me when I was crossing the Jordan River, I solemnly promised, while Yahweh listened, that I would not cause him to be executed. ⁹ But now you must surely punish him. You are a wise man, so you will know what you should do to him. He is an old man, but be sure that his blood flows when he dies ."

¹⁰ Then David died and was buried in that part of Jerusalem which was called the city of David. ¹¹ David had been king of Israel for forty years. He ruled for seven years in Hebron and for thirty-three years in Jerusalem. ¹² Solomon became the ruler to take the place of his father David and took control of all of the kingdom.

¹³ One day Adonijah came to Solomon's mother Bathsheba. She said to him, "Have you come because you want things to go well?" He replied, "Yes."

¹⁴ But then he said, "I have something to request you to do." She said, "Tell me what you want me to do."

¹⁵ He said, "You know that all the Israelite people expected me to be their king because I am David's oldest son. But that did not happen. Instead, my younger brother became king, because that is what Yahweh wanted. ¹⁶ Now I have one thing that I request you to do. Please do not refuse to do it." She replied, "Tell me what you want me to do."

¹⁷ He said, "Please ask King Solomon to give to me Abishag, the woman from the town of Shunem, to be my wife. I am sure that he will not refuse."

¹⁸ Bathsheba replied, "Very well, I will speak to the king for you."

¹⁹ So Bathsheba went to King Solomon. The king got up from his throne and went to greet her and bowed down to her. Then he sat on his throne again and asked someone to bring a chair for her. So she sat down at the king's right side.

²⁰ Then she said, "I have one small thing that I want you do. Please do not say that you will not do it." The king replied, "Mother, what do you want? I will not refuse you."

²¹ She said, "Allow Abishag to be given to your older brother Adonijah to be his wife."

²² The king replied angrily, "What? Are you requesting me to give Abishag to Adonijah? Does he want me to allow him to rule the kingdom, too? Because he is my older brother, does he think that he should be the king? Does he think that Abiathar should be the priest instead of Zadok, and that Joab should be the army commander instead of Benaiah because they supported him when he tried to become the king?"

²³ Then Solomon solemnly promised, requesting Yahweh to listen, "I wish God to strike me and kill me if I do not cause Adonijah to be executed for requesting this! ²⁴ Yahweh has appointed me to be the king and placed me here to rule as my father David did. He has promised that my descendants will be the kings of Israel. So just as surely as Yahweh lives, I solemnly promise that Adonijah will be executed today!" ²⁵ So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah to go and kill Adonijah, and Benaiah did that.

²⁶ Then Solomon said to Abiathar the priest, "Go to the town of Anathoth, to your land there. You deserve to be killed, but I will not execute you now, because you were the one who supervised the men who carried Yahweh's sacred chest for David my father, and you endured all the troubles that my father endured." ²⁷ So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being the priest of Yahweh. By doing that he caused to happen what Yahweh had said many years previously at Shiloh, that some day he would get rid of the descendants of Eli.

²⁸ Joab had not supported Absalom when he tried to become the king, but he had supported Adonijah. So when Joab heard what had happened, he ran to the sacred tent, and he took hold of the altar because he thought that no one would kill him there. ²⁹ When someone told Solomon that Joab had run to the sacred tent and was alongside the altar, Solomon told Benaiah, "Go and execute Joab."

³⁰ So Benaiah went to the sacred tent and said to Joab, "The king commands that you come out." But Joab replied, "No, I will die here." So Benaiah went back to the king and reported what he had said to Joab, and what Joab had replied.

³¹ The king replied to him, "Do what he has requested. Kill him and bury his body. If you do that, I and my descendants will no longer be punished for what Joab did when he killed two men who were innocent. ³² But I hope that Yahweh will punish Joab for attacking and killing Abner, the commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa, the commander of the army of Judah, who were both much better men than he is. My father David did not even know that Joab was planning to murder them. ³³ I hope that Yahweh will punish Joab and his descendants forever for his murdering Abner and Amasa. But I hope that things will go well forever for David's descendants who rule as he did."

³⁴ So Benaiah went into the sacred tent and killed Joab. Joab was buried on his property in the wilderness of Judah. ³⁵ Then the king appointed Benaiah to be the commander of the army instead of Joab, and he appointed Zadok to be the priest instead of Abiathar.

³⁶ Then the king sent a messenger to summon Shimei, and the king said to him, "Build a house for yourself here in Jerusalem. Remain there and do not leave the city to go anywhere. ³⁷ Be sure that the day that you leave Jerusalem and go across the Kidron Brook, you will be executed, and it will be your own fault."

³⁸ Shimei replied, "Your Majesty, what you say is good. I will do what you have said." So Shimei remained in Jerusalem for several years.

³⁹ But three years later, two of Shimei's slaves ran away. They went to stay with Maacah's son Achish, the king of the city of Gath. When someone told Shimei that they were in Gath, ⁴⁰ he put a saddle on his donkey and got on the donkey and went to Gath. He found his slaves staying with King Achish and brought them back home.

⁴¹ But someone told King Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned. ⁴² So the king sent a soldier to summon Shimei and said to him, "I told you to solemnly promise, knowing that Yahweh was listening, that you must not leave Jerusalem. I told you, 'Be sure that if you ever leave Jerusalem, you will be executed.' And you replied to me, 'What you have said is good; I will do what you have said.' ⁴³ So why did you not do what you solemnly promised to Yahweh? Why did you disobey what I commanded you?"

⁴⁴ The king also said to Shimei, "You know in your inner being all the evil things that you did to my father David. So Yahweh will now punish you for the evil things that you did. ⁴⁵ But Yahweh will bless me, and he will enable David's descendants to rule forever."

⁴⁶ Then the king gave a command to Benaiah son of Jehoiada. He went out and put Shimei to death.

So Solomon obtained complete control of the kingdom.

Chapter 3

¹ Now Solomon made an agreement to marry the king's daughter. Then Solomon brought the king's daughter to live in the part of Jerusalem called the city of David. She lived there until Solomon's workers had finished building his house, the temple of Yahweh, and the wall around Jerusalem. ² At that time the temple of Yahweh had not yet been built, so the Israelite people were still offering sacrifices at many other places of worship. ³ Solomon loved Yahweh, and he obeyed all the instructions that his father David had given him. But he also offered sacrifices and burned incense at various places.

⁴ One day the king went to the city of Gibeon to offer a sacrifice there, because that was where a very famous place of worship was. He offered a thousand whole burnt sacrifices there. ⁵ That night, Yahweh appeared to him in a dream. He asked him, "What would you like me to give to you?"

⁶ Solomon replied, "You always greatly and faithfully loved my father David, who served you well. You did that because he was faithful to you and acted righteously and honestly toward you. And you have shown how greatly and faithfully you loved him by giving me to him, his son, and now I am ruling as he did before he died.

⁷ Now, Yahweh my God, you have enabled me to be the king like my father was. But I am very young, like a little child. I do not know how to rule my people at all. ⁸ I live among the people whom you have chosen. They are a very large group of people. There are very, very many of them; no one can count them. ⁹ So please enable me to think clearly, in order that I may rule your people well. Enable me to know what is good and what is evil. If you do not do that, I will never be able to rule this great group of people who belong to you."

¹⁰ Yahweh was very pleased that Solomon had requested that. ¹¹ God said to him, "You did not request that you live for many years or that you become very rich or that you be able to kill all your enemies. Instead, you have requested that I enable you to be wise, in order that you will be able to know and to do what is right while you govern these people. ¹² So I will certainly do what you requested. I will enable you to be very wise. The result will be that no one who has lived before you or who will live after you will be as wise as you are. ¹³ I will also give you things that you did not request. I will enable you to become very rich and honored, all of the years that you live. You will be richer and more honored than any other king. ¹⁴ If you conduct your life as I want you to, and if you obey all my laws and commandments, as your father David did, I will enable you to live for many years."

¹⁵ Then Solomon awoke, and he realized that God had spoken to him in a dream. Then he went to Jerusalem and stood in front of the sacred tent where the sacred chest was, and he offered many sacrifices that were completely burned on the altar and offerings to promise friendship with Yahweh. Then he made a feast for all his officials.

¹⁶ One day two prostitutes came and stood in front of King Solomon. ¹⁷ One of them said, "Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was there in the house. ¹⁸ On the third day after my baby was born, this woman also gave birth to a baby. Only the two of us were in the house. There was no one else there.

¹⁹ But one night this woman's baby died because she accidentally rolled on top of her baby and smothered it. ²⁰ So she got up at midnight and took my baby boy who was lying beside me while I was sleeping. She carried him to her bed and brought her dead baby and put it in my bed. ²¹ When I awoke the next morning and was ready to nurse my baby, I saw that it was dead. But when I looked at it closely in the morning light, I saw that it was not my baby!"

²² But the other woman said, "That is not true! The baby that is alive is mine, and the baby that is dead is yours!" Then the first woman said, "No, the dead baby is yours, and the one that is alive is mine!" And they continued to argue in front of the king.

²³ Then the king said, "Both of you are saying, 'My baby is the one that is alive and the one that is dead is yours.'" ²⁴ So he said to one of his servants, "Bring me a sword." So the servant brought a sword to the king. ²⁵ Then the king said to the servant, "Cut the baby that is alive into two parts. Give one part to each of the women."

²⁶ But the woman whose baby was alive greatly loved her baby, so she said to the king, "No, Your Majesty! Do not allow him to kill the baby! Give her the child that is alive!" But the other woman said to the king, "No, cut it in half. Then it will not be her baby or my baby."

²⁷ Then the king said to the servant, "Do not kill the baby. Give the baby to the woman who said, 'Do not cut the baby in half,' because she is truly the baby's mother."

²⁸ All the Israelite people heard about what the king had decided, and they had an awesome respect for him. They realized that God had truly enabled him to be very wise, to judge people's matters fairly.

Chapter 4

¹ Now when Solomon was king over all Israel, ² these were his most important officials:

Azariah, whose father was Zadok, was the priest.

³ Shisha's sons Elihoreph and Ahijah were the official secretaries.

Ahilud's son Jehoshaphat was the one who announced to the people the king's decisions.

⁴ Benaiah was the army commander.

Zadok and Abiathar were also priests.

⁵ Azariah, whose father was Nathan, was in charge of the governors.

Another of Nathan's sons, Zabud, was a priest and the king's chief advisor.

⁶ Ahishar supervised the servants who worked in the palace.

Abda's son Adoniram supervised the men who were forced to do work for the king.

⁷ Solomon appointed twelve men to govern the districts in Israel. They also were required to provide food for the king and all the others who lived and worked in the palace. Each man was required to provide from his own district the food for one month in each year. ⁸ Their names were:

Ben-Hur, for the hill area of the tribe of Ephraim.

⁹ Ben-Deker, for the cities of Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth Shemesh, and Elon Bethhanan,

¹⁰ Ben-Hesed, for the cities of Arubboth and Sokoh and the area near the city of Hepher,

¹¹ Ben-Abinadab, who was married to Solomon's daughter Taphath, for all the district of Dor,

¹² Ahilud's son Baana, for the cities of Taanach and Megiddo, for all the region near the city of Zarethan, and from the city of Beth Shan south of Jezreel as far as the cities of Abel Meholah and Jokmeam,

¹³ Ben-Geber, for the city of Ramoth in the region of Gilead, for the villages in Gilead that belonged to Jair, who was a descendant of Manasseh, and for the area of Argob in the region of Bashan. There were sixty large cities in that region altogether, each city with a wall around it and bronze bars across the gates.

¹⁴ Iddo's son Ahinadab, for the city of Mahanaim east of the Jordan River;

¹⁵ Ahimaaz, who had married Solomon's daughter Basemath, for the territory of the tribe of Naphtali,

¹⁶ Hushai's son Baana, for the territory of the tribe of Asher and for the city of Aloth,

¹⁷ Paruah's son Jehoshaphat, for the territory of the tribe of Issachar,

¹⁸ Ela's son Shimei, for the territory of the tribe of Benjamin,

¹⁹ Uri's son Geber, for the region of Gilead, the land that Sihon the king of the Amor people group formerly ruled, and Og who formerly ruled the region of Bashan.

In addition to all these, Solomon appointed one governor for the territory of the tribe of Judah.

²⁰ There were as many people in Judah and Israel as there are grains of sand on the seashore. They had plenty to eat and drink, and they were happy. ²¹ Solomon's kingdom extended from the Euphrates River in the northeast to the region of Philistia in the west and to the border of Egypt in the south. The conquered people in those areas paid taxes and were under Solomon's control all during his life.

²² The people whom Solomon ruled were required to bring to Solomon every day thirty donkey-loads of fine flour and sixty donkey-loads of wheat, ²³ ten head of cattle that had been raised in stalls, twenty head of cattle raised in pastures, one hundred sheep, grain-fed poultry—and wild game: deer, gazelle, and roebucks. ²⁴ Solomon ruled over all the area west of the Euphrates River, from the city of Tiphsah in the northeast to the city of Gaza in the southwest. He ruled over all the kings in that area. There was peace between his government and the governments of nearby countries. ²⁵ All during the years that Solomon ruled, the people of Judah and Israel lived safely.

²⁶ Solomon had forty thousand stalls for the horses that pulled his chariots and twelve thousand men who rode on horses.

²⁷ His twelve district governors supplied the food that King Solomon needed for himself and for all those who ate in the palace. Each governor supplied food for one month each year. They provided everything that Solomon required. ²⁸ They also brought stalks of barley and wheat for the fast horses that pulled the chariots and for the other work horses. They brought this fodder to the places where the horses were kept.

²⁹ God enabled Solomon to be extremely wise and to have great understanding. He enjoyed learning about a huge number of things. ³⁰ He was wiser than all the wise men in the regions east of Israel, and all the wise men in Egypt. ³¹ Ethan from Ezrah and Heman and Kalkol and Darda and the sons of Mahol were considered to be very wise, but Solomon was wiser than all of them. People in all the nearby countries heard about Solomon. ³² He composed more than one thousand songs. ³³ He talked about various kinds of plants, from the huge cedar trees in Lebanon to the tiny hyssop plants that grow in cracks in walls. He also talked about wild animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. ³⁴ People came from all over the world to hear the wise things that Solomon said. Many kings sent men to listen to him and then return and tell them what Solomon said.

Chapter 5

¹ Hiram, the king of the city of Tyre, had always been a close friend of King David. When he heard that Solomon had been appointed to become the king after his father was no longer king, he sent messengers to Solomon. ² Solomon gave those messengers this message to take back to Hiram:

³ "You know that my father David led his soldiers to fight many wars against his enemies in the nearby countries. So he could not try to build a temple in which we could worship Yahweh our God, until after Yahweh enabled the Israelite army to defeat all his enemies. ⁴ But now Yahweh our God has enabled us to have peace with all the surrounding countries. There is no danger that we will be attacked. ⁵ Yahweh promised my father David, 'Your son, whom I will enable to be king after you are no longer king, will build a temple for me, Yahweh your God.'

⁶ So I am requesting that you command your workers to cut cedar trees for me. My men will work with them, and I will pay your workers whatever you decide. But my men cannot do the work alone, because they do not know how to cut down trees like your workers from the city of Sidon do."

⁷ When Hiram heard the message from Solomon, he was very happy and said, "I praise Yahweh today for giving David a very wise son to rule that great nation!"

⁸ He sent this message back to Solomon, "I have heard the message that you sent to me, and I am ready to do what you ask. I will provide cedar and cypress logs. ⁹ My workers will bring the logs down from the Lebanon mountains to the Mediterranean Sea. Then they will tie them together to make rafts to float them in the water along the coast to the place that you indicate. Then my workers will untie the logs, and your workers will take them from there. What I want you to do is to supply food for my men."

¹⁰ So Hiram arranged for his workers to supply all the cedar and cypress logs that Solomon wanted. ¹¹ Each year Solomon gave Hiram 3,520 cubic meters of wheat and 416,350 liters of pure olive oil to feed his workers. ¹² Yahweh enabled Solomon to be wise, just like he had promised. Solomon and Hiram made a treaty.

¹³ King Solomon forced thirty thousand men from all over Israel to become his workers. ¹⁴ Adoniram was their boss. Solomon divided the men into three groups. Each month ten thousand of them went to Lebanon and worked for a month there, and then they came back home for two months. ¹⁵ Solomon also forced eighty thousand men to cut stones in the hill country and seventy thousand men to haul the stones to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ He also assigned 3,300 men to supervise their work. ¹⁷ The king also commanded his workers to cut huge blocks of stones from the quarries and to smooth the sides of the stones. These huge stones were for the foundation of the temple. ¹⁸ Solomon's workers and Hiram's workers and men from the city of Gebal shaped the stones and prepared the timber to build the temple.

Chapter 6

¹ 480 years after the Israelite people left Egypt, during the fourth year that Solomon ruled Israel, in the second month, that of Ziv, Solomon's workers began to build the temple.

² Inside, the main part of the temple was twenty-seven meters long, nine meters wide, and thirteen and one-half meters high. ³ The front portico was four and one-half meters deep and nine meters wide, just as wide as the main part of the temple. ⁴ There were openings like windows in the temple walls. The openings were narrower on the outside than on the inside. ⁵ Against the two sides and the back of the temple walls, they built a structure that had rooms in it. This structure had three levels; each level was two and one-third meters high. ⁶ Each room in the lowest level was two and one-third meters wide. Each room in the middle level was two and four-fifths meters wide. The rooms in the top level were three and one-tenth meters wide. The wall of the temple at the top level was thinner than the wall at the middle level, and the wall of the middle level was thinner than the wall at the bottom level. In this way, the rooms could rest on the wall underneath them; the rooms did not need wooden beams underneath to support them.

⁷ The huge stones for the foundation of the temple were cut and shaped at the quarry to become very smooth. The result was that while the workers were building the temple there was no noise, because they did not use hammers or chisels or any other iron tools there.

⁸ The entrance to the bottom level of this attached structure was on the south side of the temple. There were stairs from the bottom level to the middle and top levels. ⁹ So Solomon's workers finished building the framework of the temple. They made the ceiling from cedar beams and boards. ¹⁰ They built the rooms alongside the main chambers with three levels, each two and one-third meters high, and joined them to the temple with cedar beams.

¹¹ Then Yahweh said this to Solomon, ¹² "I want to tell you about this temple that you are building. If you continually obey all my statutes and decrees and commands, I will do for you what I promised to your father David. ¹³ I will live among the Israelite people, in this temple, and I will never abandon them."

¹⁴ Solomon's workers worked to finish building the temple. ¹⁵ On the inside, they lined the rooms from the floor to the ceiling. They made the floor from cypress boards. ¹⁶ Inside the back part of the temple they built an inner room, called the very holy place. It was nine meters long. All the walls of this room were lined with cedar boards. ¹⁷ In front of the very holy place was a room that was eighteen meters long. ¹⁸ The cedar boards on the walls inside the temple were decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers. The walls were completely covered with cedar boards, with the result that the stones of the walls behind them could not be seen.

¹⁹ At the back of the temple they made the very holy place, in order to put the sacred chest there. ²⁰ That room was nine meters long, nine meters wide, and nine meters high. They covered the walls with very thin sheets of pure gold. For burning incense they also made an altar of cedar boards. ²¹ Solomon told them to cover the other walls inside the temple with very thin sheets of pure gold and to fasten gold chains across the entrance to the very holy place. ²² They covered all the walls of the temple and the altar that was outside the very holy place with very thin sheets of gold.

²³ Inside the very holy place they made from olive tree wood large statues of two creatures with wings. Each one was four and one-half meters tall. ^24-26 They each were the same size and had the same shape. They each had two wings which were spread out. Each wing was two and one-third meters long, with the result that the distance between the outer ends of the two wings was four and one-half meters across. The height of each cherub was four and one-half meters. ²⁷ They put these statues next to each other in the very holy place so that the wing of the one touched the one wing of the other in the center of the room, and the outer wings touched the walls. ²⁸ They covered the statues with very thin sheets of gold.

²⁹ Solomon told them to decorate the walls of the main room and the very holy place by carving representations of winged creatures and palm trees and flowers. ³⁰ They also covered the floor of both rooms with very thin sheets of gold.

³¹ They made a set of doors from olive tree wood, and placed them at the entrance to the very holy place. The lintel and doorposts had five indented sections. ³² The doors were decorated by carving on them representations of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers. All of these things were covered with very thin sheets of gold. ³³ They made a rectangular doorframe from olive tree wood, with four indented sections, and put it between the entrance room and the main room. ³⁴ They made two folding doors from cypress wood and fastened them to the doorframe. ³⁵ The doors were also decorated with wood carvings of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers, and they were also covered evenly with very thin sheets of gold.

³⁶ They built a courtyard in front of the temple. The walls around the courtyard were made of cedar and stone. To make the walls, between each layer of cedar beams they put down two layers of stone.

³⁷ They laid the foundation of the temple of Yahweh in the month of Ziv, in the fourth year that Solomon ruled. ³⁸ In the eleventh year that he ruled, in the month of Bul, they finished building the temple and all of its parts, doing exactly what Solomon's told them to do. It required seven years to build it.

Chapter 7

¹ They also built a palace for Solomon, but it required thirteen years to build it. ² One of the buildings they built was a large ceremonial hall. It was called the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. It was forty-six meters long, twenty-three meters wide, and fourteen meters high. It was supported by four rows of cedar pillars. There were cedar beams across each row. ³ The carpenters build a roof from cedar planks that were attached to beams. The carpenters made pillars to support the cedar beams. There were a total of forty-five pillars put in place, making fifteen pillars in each row to support the roof. ⁴ On each of the two side walls there were three sets of windows facing each other. ⁵ All the windows and doorways had rectangular frames. The windows along the long wall on one side faced the windows on the other side.

⁶ They also built a long room will pillars; it was twenty-three meters long and fourteen meters wide. In front of it was a covered porch whose roof was supported by pillars.

⁷ Then they made a building called the Hall of the Throne. It was also called the Hall of Justice. That was where Solomon decided about people's disputes. The entire floor was covered with cedar wood.

⁸ In the courtyard behind the Hall of Judgment they built a house for Solomon to live in that was made like the other buildings. They also built the same kind of house for his wife, who was the daughter of the king of Egypt.

⁹ All of these buildings and the walls around the palace courtyard were made from stones, from the foundations up to the eaves. The stones had been expensive for the workers to cut at the quarry, according to the sizes that were needed, and the sides of the stones were shaped and smoothed by cutting them with saws. ¹⁰ The foundations were also made from huge blocks of expensive stones that had been prepared at the quarry. Some of them were about three and three-quarters meters long and others were about four and four-fifths meters long. ¹¹ On top of the foundation stones were other expensive stones that had been cut according to the sizes they needed, as well as cedar beams. ¹² The palace courtyard, the inner courtyard in front of the temple, and the portico in front of the temple had walls made by putting down three layers of cut stones between each layer of cedar beams.

^13-14 There was a man who lived in the city of Tyre whose name was Huram. He was a craftsman. His father had also lived in Tyre and had also been very skilled at making things from bronze, but Huram's father was no longer living. His mother was from the tribe of Naphtali. Huram was very wise and intelligent and was very skilled at making things from bronze. Solomon invited him to come to Jerusalem and supervise all the work of making things from bronze, and Huram agreed.

¹⁵ He made two bronze pillars. Each one was eight and one-third meters tall and eight and one-half around. ¹⁶ He also made two gleaming bronze tops to be put on top of the pillars. Each top was two and one-third meters tall. ¹⁷ Then he made bronze networks of chains like wreaths to decorate the top of each pillar. There were seven of these networks at the top of each pillar. ¹⁸ Huram also made bronze figures that resembled pomegranates. He put two rows of pomegranates over the top of each pillar. ¹⁹ The top over each pillar was shaped like a lily. Each lily leaf was one and four-fifths meters tall. ²⁰ These tops were placed on a bowl shaped section around which were two rows of two hundred figures of pomegranates around the top of each pillar. ²¹ His helpers set up the pillars in front of the entrance of the temple. The pillar on the south side was named Jakin, and the pillar on the north side was named Boaz. ²² The bronze tops that were shaped like lilies were placed on top of the pillars.

So Huram and his helpers completed the work of making the bronze pillars.

²³ Huram also made a very large round bronze basin called "The Sea" that was made of metal and cast in a clay mold. It was two and one-third meters tall, four and three-fifths meters across, and thirteen and three-quarters meters around. ²⁴ Around the outer edge of the rim of the "The Sea" were two rows of figures that resembled gourds that were made of bronze. But the gourds were not cast separately. They were cast in the same mold as the rest of the tank. For each meter of length around the rim of the tank there were about eighteen gourds.

²⁵ Huram also cast twelve bronze statues of oxen. He placed them to face outward. He placed three of them to face north, three to face west, three to face south, and three to face east. His helpers put the large bronze tank known as "The Sea" so that it sat on the backs of the statues of the oxen. ²⁶ The sides of the tank were eight centimenters thick. The rim was like the rim of a cup. It curved outward, like the petals of a lily. When the tank was full, it held about forty-four cubic meters of water.

²⁷ Huram also made ten bronze carts. Each was one and four-fifths meters long, one and four-fifths meters wide, and one and one-third meters tall. ²⁸ On the sides of the carts there were panels set in frames. ²⁹ On those panels were bronze figures of lions, oxen, and winged creatures. Below and above the lions and bulls there were decorations of bronze wreaths. ³⁰ Each cart had four bronze wheels and two axles made of bronze. At the top corners of each cart were bronze supports to hold up a basin. On these supports were also decorations of bronze wreaths. ³¹ On top of each cart, under each basin, was a frame that resembled a circular collar. The top of each circular frame was forty-six centimeters above the top of the cart, and the bottom of it was twenty-three centimeters below the top of the cart. There were also engravings within square panels. ³² The wheels were sixty-nine centimeters high. They were below the panels. The wheels were connected to axles that had been cast in the same mold as the rest of the cart. ³³ The wheels of the carts were like the wheels of chariots. The axles, the rims, the spokes, and the hubs were all cast from bronze.

³⁴ At the top corners of each cart there were handles. These were molded into the cart itself. ³⁵ There was a bronze band of twenty-three centimeters around the top of each cart. There were braces attached to the corners of each cart. The bands and the braces were cast in the same mold as the rest of the cart. ³⁶ The braces and the panels on the sides of the carts were also decorated with figures of winged creatures, lions, and palm trees, whenever there was space for them, and there were bronze wreaths all around them. ³⁷ That is how Huram made the ten carts. They were all cast in the same mold, so they were all alike. They all were the same size and had the same shape.

³⁸ Huram also made ten bronze basins, one basin for each of the ten stands. Each basin was one and four-fifths meters across and held 880 liters of water. ³⁹ Huram placed five of the carts on the right side of the temple and five on the left side of the temple. He put the large tank known as "The Sea" on the corner that was toward the east and in the direction of the south. ⁴⁰ Huram also made pots, shovels for carrying ashes, and bowls for carrying the blood of the animals that would be sacrificed. He completed all the work that King Solomon requested him to do for the temple. This is a list of the bronze things he made:

⁴¹ the two pillars,

the two tops to be put on top of the pillars,

the two wreaths of chains to decorate the tops of the pillars,

⁴² the four hundred figures of pomegranates in four rows, with one hundred in each row; two of these rows were placed over the head of each pillar,

⁴³ the ten carts,

the ten basins,

⁴⁴ the big tank known as "The Sea,"

the twelve statues of oxen on whose backs the tank was placed,

⁴⁵ the pots, shovels for the ashes of the altar, and bowls.