2 Chronicles 8

¹⁰Now at the end of the twenty years during which Solomon built these two houses, the house of the Lord and the royal palace,

¹¹King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every desire.

¹¹King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, who had supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every desire.

¹²So Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

²³And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah,

²⁴and had gathered men to himself. When David killed the Zobaites, Rezon captained a band of raiders and went to Damascus, where they settled and gained control.

⁸and from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, then extend to Zedad,

³David also defeated Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, who had marched out to restore his dominion along the Euphrates River.

³As far as Hamath, David also defeated King Hadadezer of Zobah, who had marched out to establish his dominion along the Euphrates River.

²¹So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo-hamath.

¹⁷So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸Baalath, and Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah,

²⁴His daughter was Sheerah, who built Lower and Upper Beth-horon, as well as Uzzen-sheerah.

⁵This was the territory of the descendants of Ephraim by their clans: The border of their inheritance went from Ataroth-addar in the east to Upper Beth-horon

⁷So he said to the people of Judah, “Let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars. The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God. We have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.

³Then it descended westward to the border of the Japhletites as far as the border of Lower Beth-horon and on to Gezer, and it ended at the Sea.

⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon! Descend from the peak of Amana, from the summits of Senir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.

⁴⁴Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath,

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness, in addition to all the store cities that he had built in Hamath.

¹⁴Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.

¹⁰Anything my eyes desired, I did not deny myself. I refused my heart no pleasure. For my heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

¹¹Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

¹²Jehoshaphat grew stronger and stronger, and he built fortresses and store cities in Judah

¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—

¹⁹the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

¹When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

²⁰As for all the people who remained of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites (the people who were not Israelites)—

²¹their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.

¹⁰But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, but they are forced laborers.

⁶Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor.

²¹their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.

²¹The Benjamites, however, failed to drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the Benjamites.

²²The house of Joseph also attacked Bethel, and the Lord was with them.

¹³However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they put the Canaanites to forced labor; but they failed to drive them out completely.

³⁴They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them,

³⁹If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

⁴⁰Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

³¹Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

²⁶But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

¹¹He said, “This will be the manner of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them to serve his own chariots and horses, and to run in front of his chariots.

¹²He will appoint some for himself as commanders of thousands and of fifties, and others to plow his ground, to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.

⁵Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁶And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”

²³They were also the chief officers over Solomon’s projects: 550 supervisors over the people who did the work.

¹⁶not including his 3,300 foremen who supervised the workers.

¹⁸Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.

⁸And the palace where Solomon would live, set further back, was of similar construction. He also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

¹Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the Lord, as well as the wall around Jerusalem.

²⁴As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

⁵“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

²“Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel

⁴³I will also meet with the Israelites there, and that place will be consecrated by My glory.

¹He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.

¹⁶So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

¹⁷Let the priests who minister before the Lord weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

¹⁷the weight of the pure gold for the forks, sprinkling bowls, and pitchers; the weight of each gold dish; the weight of each silver bowl;

⁸When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.

²³and Jesus was walking in the temple courts in Solomon’s Colonnade.

¹⁶Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.

³⁸This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old.

³⁹Offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight.

³On the Sabbaths and New Moons the people of the land are also to bow in worship before the Lord at the entrance to that gateway.

⁴The burnt offering that the prince presents to the Lord on the Sabbath day shall be six unblemished male lambs and an unblemished ram.

¹Then the Lord said to Moses,

²“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the Lord that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

¹⁷And it shall be the prince’s part to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—for all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense with them before the Lord. So he completed the temple.

¹⁷These were the gatekeepers: Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, and their relatives. Shallum was their chief;

²⁴The leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua son of Kadmiel, along with their associates, who stood across from them to give praise and thanksgiving as one section alternated with the other, as prescribed by David the man of God.

¹⁸They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their groups to the service of God in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.

³⁶and his associates—Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani—with the musical instruments prescribed by David the man of God. Ezra the scribe led the procession.

¹¹Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place,

¹⁰So the service was prepared; the priests stood in their places and the Levites in their divisions according to the king’s command.

¹²Moreover, the power of God was on the people in Judah to give them one heart to obey the command of the king and his officials according to the word of the Lord.

⁴²The Israelites had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁴³And Moses inspected all the work and saw that they had accomplished it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.

⁵¹So all the work that King Solomon had performed for the house of the Lord was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

²⁹Others were put in charge of the furnishings and other articles of the sanctuary, as well as the fine flour, wine, oil, frankincense, and spices.

²⁰Now their fellow Levites were in charge of the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries of the dedicated things.

²¹From the descendants of Ladan, who were Gershonites through Ladan and heads of the families of Ladan the Gershonite, were Jehieli,

⁷The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

¹⁸So Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the construction of the temple.

²²Azariah was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah rested with his fathers.

⁸So we passed by our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road, which comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber, and traveled along the road of the Wilderness of Moab.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, drove out the men of Judah, and sent the Edomites into Elath, where they live to this day.

³⁶They agreed to make ships to go to Tarshish, and these were built in Ezion-geber.

²⁶King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

²⁷And Hiram sent his servants, sailors who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants.

⁴⁸Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.

¹⁰(The servants of Hiram and of Solomon who brought gold from Ophir also brought algum wood and precious stones.

¹³The weight of gold that came to Solomon each year was 666 talents,

²⁷And Hiram sent his servants, sailors who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants.

²⁸They sailed to Ophir and imported gold from there—420 talents—and delivered it to Solomon.

⁸and I accumulated for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered to myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men—many concubines.

²²For the king had the ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.