Study Desk

^(a)Then Solomon said, "The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

"I have built You a lofty house, And a place for Your dwelling forever."

Then the king ^[a]faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.

He said, "Blessed be the Lord , the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and has fulfilled it with His hands, saying,

‘Since the day that I brought My people from the land of Egypt, I did not choose a city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man for a leader over My people Israel;

but ^(b)I have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I ^(c)have chosen David to be over My people Israel.'

^(d)Now it was ^[b]in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the Lord , the God of Israel.

But the Lord said to my father David, ‘Because it was ^[c]in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was ^[d]in your heart.

Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who ^[e]will be born to you, he shall build the house for My name.'

Now the Lord has fulfilled His word which He spoke; for I have risen in the place of my father David and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord ^[f]promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord , the God of Israel.

There I have set the ark ^(e)in which is the covenant of the Lord , which He made with the sons of Israel."

Then he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

^(f)Now Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, ^(g)knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.

He said, "O Lord , the God of Israel, ^(h)there is no god like You in heaven or on earth, ⁽ⁱ⁾keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;

^(j)who has kept with Your servant David, my father, that which You have ^[g]promised him; indeed You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.

Now therefore, O Lord , the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David, my father, that which You have ^[h]promised him, saying, ‘^[i](k)You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk in My law as you have walked before Me.'

Now therefore, O Lord , the God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant David.

"But ^(l)will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, ^(m)heaven and the ^[j]highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built.

Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You;

that Your ⁽ⁿ⁾eye may be open toward this house day and night, toward ^(o)the place of which You have said that You would put Your name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

Listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place; hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; ^(p)hear and forgive.

"If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house,

then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, ^[k](q)punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

"If Your people Israel ^[l]are defeated before an enemy because ^(r)they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house,

then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to them and to their fathers.

"When the ^(s)heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them;

then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and Your people Israel, indeed, ^(t)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.

"If there is ^(u)famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their ^[m]cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is,

whatever prayer or supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, ^[n]each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house,

then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know ^(v)for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men,

that they may ^[o]fear You, to walk in Your ways ^[p]as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

"Also concerning ^(w)the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name's sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house,

then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and ^[q]fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that ^[r]this house which I have built is ^(x)called by Your name.

"When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way You shall send them, and they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name,

then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

"When they sin against You (^(y)for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy, so that ^[s]they take them away captive to a land far off or near,

if they ^[t]take thought in the land where they are taken captive, and repent and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have committed iniquity and have acted wickedly';

^(z)if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive, and pray toward their land which You have given to their fathers and the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name,

then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications, and maintain their cause and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.

"Now, O my God, I pray, ^(aa)let Your eyes be open and ^(ab)Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

"^(ac)Now therefore arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your might; let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good.

"O Lord God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; ^(ad)remember Your lovingkindness to Your servant David."

^(a)Now when Solomon had finished praying, ^(b)fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

^(c)The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house.

All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord , saying, "^(d)Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting."

^(e)Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before the Lord .

King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

The priests stood at their posts, and ^(f)the Levites also, with the instruments of music to the Lord , which King David had made for giving praise to the Lord —"for His lovingkindness is everlasting"—whenever ^[a]he gave praise by their ^[b]means, while ^(g)the priests on the other side blew trumpets; and all Israel was standing.

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

So ⁽ⁱ⁾Solomon observed the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly who came from the entrance of Hamath to the ^(j)brook of Egypt.

On the eighth day they held ^(k)a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar they observed seven days and the feast seven days.

Then on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their tents, rejoicing and happy of heart because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and to Solomon and to His people Israel.

^(l)Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's palace, and successfully completed all that ^[c]he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and in his palace.

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

⁽ⁿ⁾If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,

^(o)and My people ^[d]who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

^(p)Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the ^[e]prayer offered in this place.

For ^(q)now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

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

then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David, saying, ‘^[f](r)You shall not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.'

"^(s)But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

^(t)then I will uproot you from My land which I have given ^[g]you, and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight and I will make it ^(u)a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

As for this house, which was exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘^(v)Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?'

And they will say, ‘Because ^(w)they forsook the Lord , the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity on them.'"

^(a)Now it came about at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of the Lord and his own house

that he built the cities which Huram had given to ^[a]him, and settled the sons of Israel there.

Then Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and captured it.

He built Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities which he had built in Hamath.

He also built upper ^(b)Beth-horon and lower Beth-horon, ^(c)fortified cities with walls, gates and bars;

and Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for ^[b]his chariots and cities for ^[c]his horsemen, and all that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land ^[d]under his rule.

^(d)All of the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,

namely, from their descendants who were left after them in the land whom the sons of Israel had not destroyed, ^(e)them Solomon raised as forced laborers to this day.

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

These were the chief ^[e]officers of King Solomon, two hundred and fifty who ruled over the people.

^(f)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 dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because ^[f]the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered."

Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on ^(g)the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch;

and ^(h)did so according to the daily rule, offering them up ⁽ⁱ⁾according to the commandment of Moses, for ^(j)the sabbaths, ^(k)the new moons and the ^(l)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 ^(m)the divisions of the priests for their service, and ⁽ⁿ⁾the Levites for their duties of praise and ministering before the priests according to the daily rule, and ^(o)the gatekeepers by their divisions at every gate; for ^(p)David the man of God had so commanded.

And they did not depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites in any manner or concerning the storehouses.

Thus all the work of Solomon was carried out ^[g]from the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord , and until it was finished. So the house of the Lord was completed.

Then Solomon went to ^(q)Ezion-geber and to ^(r)Eloth on the seashore in the land of Edom.

And Huram by his servants sent him ships and servants who knew the sea; and they went with Solomon's servants to Ophir, and ^(s)took from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold and brought them to King Solomon.

^(a)Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions. She had a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and a large amount of gold and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was on her heart.

Solomon ^[a]answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from Solomon which he did not ^[b]explain to her.

When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he had built,

the food at his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his ministers and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and ^[c]his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord , she was breathless.

Then she said to the king, "It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom.

Nevertheless I did not believe their reports until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You surpass the report that I heard.

How ^[d]blessed are your men, how ^[e]blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom.

Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you, ^(b)setting you on His throne as king for the Lord your God; ^(c)because your God loved Israel establishing them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness."

Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great amount of spices and precious stones; there had never been spice like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

The servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon ^(d)who brought gold from Ophir, also brought algum trees and precious stones.

From the algum trees the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king's palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; and none like that was seen before in the land of Judah.

King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested besides a return for what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and went to her own land with her servants.

^(e)Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold,

besides that which the traders and merchants brought; and all ^(f)the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold, ^[f]using 600 shekels of beaten gold on each large shield.

He made 300 shields of beaten gold, ^[g]using three hundred shekels of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold.

There were six steps to the throne and a footstool in gold attached to the throne, and ^[h]arms ^[i]on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the ^[j]arms.

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.

All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered ^[k]valuable in the days of Solomon.

^(g)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 and apes and peacocks.

^(h)So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

And all the kings of the earth were seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.

⁽ⁱ⁾They brought every man his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.

Now Solomon had ^(j)4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

^(k)He was the ruler over all the kings from the Euphrates River even to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt.

^(l)The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the ^[l]lowland.

^(m)And they were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all countries.

⁽ⁿ⁾Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, ^(o)are they not written in the ^[m]records of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of ^[n]Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

^(p)Solomon reigned forty years in Jerusalem over all Israel.

And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in ^(q)the city of his father David; and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

^(a)Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for ^(b)he was in Egypt where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

So they sent and summoned him. When Jeroboam and all Israel came, they spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

"Your father made our ^(c)yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you."

He said to them, "Return to me again in three days." So the people departed.

Then King Rehoboam ^(d)consulted with the elders who had ^[a]served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, "How do you counsel me to answer this people?"

They spoke to him, saying, "If you will be kind to this people and please them and ^(e)speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever."

But he ^(f)forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him ^[b]and served him.

So he said to them, "What counsel do you give that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?"

The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall say to the people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us.' Thus you shall say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's loins!

Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.'"

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had ^[c]directed, saying, "Return to me on the third day."

The king answered them harshly, and King Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the elders.

He spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, "^[d]My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."

So the king did not listen to the people, ^(g)for it was a turn of events from God ^(h)that the Lord might establish His word, which He spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them the people answered the king, saying, "⁽ⁱ⁾What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to your tents, O Israel; Now look after your own house, David." ^(j)So all Israel departed to their tents.

But as for the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was ^(k)over the forced labor, and the sons of Israel stoned him ^[e]to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

So ^(l)Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.