Study Desk

And there I have made a place for the ark containing the covenant of Adonai , which he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."

then, regardless of what prayer or plea anyone among all your people Isra'el makes — for each individual will know what is plagueing his own conscience — and the person spreads out his hands toward this house;

(for they will hear of your great reputation, your mighty hand and your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house;

"If your people go out to fight against their enemy, no matter by which way you send them, and they pray to Adonai toward the city you chose, toward the house I built for your name;

"If they sin against you — for there is no one who doesn't sin — and you are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy, so that they carry them off captive to the land of their enemy, whether far away or nearby;

if, in the land of their enemies who carried them off captive, they return to you with all their heart and being and pray to you toward their own land, which you gave to their ancestors, toward the city you chose and toward the house I have built for your name;

for they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the flames of the iron furnace.

For you made a distinction between them and all the peoples of the earth by making them your inheritance, as you said through Moshe your servant when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Adonai Elohim ."

For the sacrifice of peace offerings which Shlomo offered to Adonai , he offered 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people of Isra'el dedicated the house of Adonai .

The same day, the king consecrated the center of the courtyard in front of the house of Adonai , because he had to offer the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings there. For the bronze altar before Adonai was too small to receive the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings.

So Shlomo celebrated the festival at that time. All Isra'el, a huge gathering [that had come all the way] from the entrance of Hamat to the Vadi [of Egypt], celebrated with him before Adonai our God for seven days and then for seven more days — fourteen days in all.

On the eighth day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and returned to their tents full of joy and glad of heart for all the goodness Adonai had shown to David his servant and to Isra'el his people.

After Shlomo had finished building the house of Adonai , the royal palace and everything else he wanted to build for himself,

As for you, if you will live in my presence, as did David your father, in pureness of heart and uprightness, doing everything I have ordered you to do, and observing my laws and rulings;

then I will cut off Isra'el from the land I have given them. This house, which I consecrated for my name, I will eject from my sight; and Isra'el will become an example to avoid and an object of scorn among all peoples.

He said, "What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?" So they have been called the land of Kabul [good for nothing] till this day.

Following is the account of the forced labor levied by King Shlomo for building the house of Adonai , his own palace, the Millo, the wall of Yerushalayim, and the cities of Hatzor, Megiddo and Gezer.

Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, taken Gezer, burned it to the ground and killed the Kena‘ani living in the city; then he had given it as a dowry for his daughter, Shlomo's wife.

as well as all the cities that Shlomo had for storing supplies, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his horsemen, and the other buildings Shlomo wanted to build for himself in Yerushalayim, in the L'vanon and throughout the land he ruled.

Pharaoh's daughter came up from the City of David to her house, which Shlomo had built for her. After that he built the Millo.