Study Desk

The priests stood at their posts, and the Levites also, with the musical instruments for the LORD, which King David had made for giving praise to the LORD—"for His faithfulness is everlasting"—whenever David gave praise through their ministry; the priests on the other side blew trumpets and all Israel was standing.

Then Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that was before the house of the LORD, for he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings there, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to contain the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fat.

So Solomon held the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly that came from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt.

And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, because they held the dedication of the altar for seven days, and the feast for seven days.

Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

"For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there always.

"As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, to do according to everything that I have commanded you, and keep My statutes and My ordinances,

then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight; and I will make it a proverb and an object of scorn among all peoples.

"As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, 'Why has the LORD done these things to this land and to this house?'

and Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots and cities for his horsemen, and everything that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and all the land under his rule.

But Solomon did not make slaves from the sons of Israel for his work; for they were men of war, his chief captains and commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.

Then Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, "My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the ark of the LORD has entered are holy."

and he did so according to the daily rule, offering them up according to the commandment of Moses, for the Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths.

Now according to the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties of praise and ministering before the priests according to the daily rule, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for this is what David, the man of God, had commanded.

"Blessed be the LORD your God who delighted in you, setting you on His throne as king for the LORD your God; because your God loved Israel, establishing them forever, He made you king over them, to carry out justice and righteousness."

From the algum trees the king made steps to the house of the LORD and for the king's palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; and nothing like them was seen before in the land of Judah.

Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other; nothing like it was made for any other kingdom.

For the king had ships which went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

Now Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

And they were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all countries.