Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing to the Lord.

And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;

Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

and also, that which thou hast not asked I have given to thee, both riches and honour, that there hath not been like thee a man among the kings all thy days;

And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.

And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.

And one of them said, O my lord, I and this woman are living in the same house; and I gave birth to a child by her side in the house.

And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

And the son of this woman will die in the night when she lay upon him.

She got up in the middle of the night, took my son from me while your servant was asleep, and laid him to her breast after laying her dead son next to me.

And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.

Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.

And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

Then spoke the woman whose was the living child to the king, for her bowels yearned over her son, and she said, Ah, my lord! give her the living child, and in no wise put it to death. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine; divide it.

And the king answered and said, Give this one the living child, and in no wise put it to death: she is its mother.

And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.

And so it came to pass, that, King Solomon, was king, over all Israel.

And these the chiefs which were to him: Azariah, son of Zadok the priest;

Azariah the son of Nathan [was] over the governors, and Zabud the son of Nathan was a priest, an advisor to the king.

and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to taskwork.

And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided victuals for the king and his household: each man had to make provision for a month in the year.

The son of Hesed, in Aruboth; to him pertained Sochoh, and all the land of Hepher:

The son of Abinadab, in all the region of Dor; which had Taphath the daughter of Solomon to wife:

Baana the son of Ahilud; to him pertained Taanach and Megiddo, and all Bethshean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Bethshean to Abelmeholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokneam:

The son of Geber, in Ramothgilead; to him pertained the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; to him also pertained the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, threescore great cities with walls and brasen bars:

Ahinadab, son of Iddo, the two camps.

Ahimaaz was in Naphtali; he also took Basmath the daughter of Solomon to wife:

Geber son of Uri was in charge of the land of Gilead (the territory which had once belonged to King Sihon of the Amorites and to King Og of Bashan). He was sole governor of the area.

The people of Judah and Israel were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore; they had plenty to eat and drink and were happy.

And Solomon ruled over all kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life.

And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal,

Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and fat fowls.

For he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river: and he had peace on all sides round about him.

And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

And it came to pass that, Solomon, had forty thousand stalls of horses, for his chariots, - and twelve thousand horsemen.

And those officers provided food for king Solomon, and for all who came to king Solomon's table, every man in his month: they let nothing be wanting.

Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge.

And God giveth wisdom to Solomon, and understanding, very much, and breadth of heart, as the sand that is on the edge of the sea;

He was wiser than anyone—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, sons of Mahol. His reputation extended to all the surrounding nations.

He was the maker of three thousand wise sayings, and of songs to the number of a thousand and five.

And he spoke of the trees, from the cedar-tree that is on Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of cattle, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes.

And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.

And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the place of his father; for Hiram always loved David.

And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,

'Thou hast known David my father, that he hath not been able to build a house to the name of Jehovah his God, because of the wars that have been round about him, till Jehovah's putting them under the soles of his feet.

'And now, Jehovah my God hath given rest to me round about, there is no adversary nor evil occurrence,

And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name.

Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.

And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people.

And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for: and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir.

My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.

So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desire.

And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.

And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.

And King Solomon raised a labour-band, out of all Israel, - and it came to pass that, the labour-band, was thirty thousand men.

And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home: and Adoniram was over the levy.

And it came to pass that, Solomon, had seventy thousand bearers of burdens, - and eighty thousand hewers in the mountain;

In addition to the chiefs of the responsible men put by Solomon to oversee the work, three thousand and three hundred in authority over the workmen.

And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.

And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

As to the house that king Solomon hath built for Jehovah, sixty cubits is its length, and twenty its breadth, and thirty cubits its height.

And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.

And he made to the house windows, with closed bars.

And he built - by the wall of the house - a gallery, round about, against the walls of the house, round about, both to the temple, and to the shrine, - and he made side chambers round about.

The lowest couch, five by the cubit is its breadth; and the middle, six by the cubit is its breadth; and the third, seven by the cubit is its breadth, for withdrawings he hath put to the house round about, without -- not to lay hold on the walls of the house.

The entrance to the side-chambers of the middle floor was in the right side of the house; and they went up by winding stairs into the middle floor, and out of the middle into the third.

And he built the floors against all the house, five cubits high; and they held to the house by the timbers of cedar.

And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,

Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father:

and have tabernacled in the midst of the sons of Israel, and do not forsake My people Israel.'

And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the walls of the roof; he overlaid them on the inside with wood, and overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress.

And he built twenty cubits of the innermost part of the house, both floor and walls, with boards of cedar; and he built them for it within, to be the oracle, the most holy place.

And the first house, that is to say, the body of the temple, was forty cubits long.

(All the inside of the house was cedar-wood, ornamented with designs of buds and flowers; no stonework was to be seen inside.)

And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

And to the face of the oracle twenty cubits the length, and twenty cubits the breadth, and twenty cubits its height: and he will overlay it with gold shut up, and he will overlay the altar with cedar.

And Solomon overlayeth the house within with gold refined, and causeth it to pass over in chains of gold before the oracle, and overlayeth it with gold.

And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold.

And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high.

and one wing of the cherub was five cubits, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub, ten cubits from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing;

and ten by the cubit is the second cherub, one measure and one form are to the two cherubs,

The two of them were ten cubits high.

And he set the cherubim in the midst of the inner house; and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched, wing to wing, in the midst of the house.

He carved all the walls of the house all around with carved engravings of cherubim, palm-shaped decorations, and open flowers, [both] the inner and the outer sanctuaries.

And the bottom of the house he overlaid with gold from within and to without

as to the opening of the oracle, he made doors of the oil-tree; the lintel, side-posts, a fifth.

The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.

Solomon also provided four-sided doorposts made of cypress wood for the entrance to the outer sanctuary,

And the two doors were of fir tree: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.

But Solomon took thirteen years to build his own palace, and finally finished it.

It was covered with cedar above, and the supporting beams which [were] on the forty-five pillars, fifteen [to] the row.

[There were] three rows of specially designed windows; [with] window to window three times.

All of the doorways and the doorframes [had] four-sided casings, with opening to opposite opening three times.

Then he made a porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.

And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. Solomon made also an house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had taken to wife, like unto this porch.

All these were of costly stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court.

And the foundation was of rich stones and the mighty great stones of ten cubits and of eight. And above were rich stones hewed according to the same size, and also with Cedar.