Now King David was old, advanced in age; and they covered him with clothes, but he could not keep warm.

The girl was very beautiful; and she became the king’s nurse and served him, but the king did not cohabit with her.

His father had never crossed him at any time by asking, “Why have you done so?” And he was also a very handsome man, and he was born after Absalom.

So Bathsheba went in to the king in the bedroom. Now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering to the king.

Behold, while she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in.

While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came. Then Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are a valiant man and bring good news.”

And Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, and he arose, went and took hold of the horns of the altar.

Now it was told Solomon, saying, “Behold, Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon, for behold, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.’”

Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera the Benjamite, of Bahurim; now it was he who cursed me with a violent curse on the day I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’

Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.

And Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.

So he said, “You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel expected me to be king; however, the kingdom has turned about and become my brother’s, for it was his from the Lord.

Then to Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to Anathoth to your own field, for you deserve to die; but I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and because you were afflicted in everything with which my father was afflicted.”

It was told King Solomon that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord, and behold, he is beside the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, fall upon him.”

Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and fell upon him and put him to death, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness.

It was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned.

So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and fell upon him so that he died.Thus the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon.

The people were still sacrificing on the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days.

The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

Then 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 burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.

When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.”

Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!”

When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

Now King Solomon was king over all Israel.

These were his officials: Azariah the son of Zadok was the priest;

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha were secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the deputies; and Zabud the son of Nathan, a priest, was the king’s friend;

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

Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (Socoh was his and all the land of Hepher);

Ben-abinadab, in all the height of Dor (Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife);

Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only deputy who was in the land.

Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty kors of fine flour and sixty kors of meal,

For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations.

“You know that David my father was unable to build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.

The Lord gave wisdom to Solomon, just as He promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant.

He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in relays; they were in Lebanon a month and two months at home. And Adoniram was over the forced laborers.

As for the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits and its width twenty cubits and its height thirty cubits.

The porch in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits in length, corresponding to the width of the house, and its depth along the front of the house was ten cubits.

The lowest story was five cubits wide, and the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around in order that the beams would not be inserted in the walls of the house.

The house, while it was being built, was built of stone prepared at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool heard in the house while it was being built.

The doorway for the lowest side chamber was on the right side of the house; and they would go up by winding stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.

The house, that is, the nave in front of the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long.

There was cedar on the house within, carved in the shape of gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, there was no stone seen.

The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height, and he overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the altar with cedar.

He overlaid the whole house with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar which was by the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub and five cubits the other wing of the cherub; from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing were ten cubits.

The other cherub was ten cubits; both the cherubim were of the same measure and the same form.

The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was the other cherub.

He placed the cherubim in the midst of the inner house, and the wings of the cherubim were spread out, so that the wing of the one was touching the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub was touching the other wall. So their wings were touching each other in the center of the house.

In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid, in the month of Ziv.

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

Now Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

He built the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was 100 cubits and its width 50 cubits and its height 30 cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams on the pillars.

It was paneled with cedar above the side chambers which were on the 45 pillars, 15 in each row.

There were artistic window frames in three rows, and window was opposite window in three ranks.

All the doorways and doorposts had squared artistic frames, and window was opposite window in three ranks.

Then he made the hall of pillars; its length was 50 cubits and its width 30 cubits, and a porch was in front of them and pillars and a threshold in front of them.

He made the hall of the throne where he was to judge, the hall of judgment, and it was paneled with cedar from floor to floor.

His house where he was to live, the other court inward from the hall, was of the same workmanship. He also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom Solomon had married.

The foundation was of costly stones, even large stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.

He was a widow’s son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill for doing any work in bronze. So he came to King Solomon and performed all his work.

He fashioned the two pillars of bronze; eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured the circumference of both.

He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits.

There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection which was beside the network; and the pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around both capitals.

On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished.

Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference.

It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward.

It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths.

Then he made the ten stands of bronze; the length of each stand was four cubits and its width four cubits and its height three cubits.

This was the design of the stands: they had borders, even borders between the frames,

and on the borders which were between the frames were lions, oxen and cherubim; and on the frames there was a pedestal above, and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.

Its opening inside the crown at the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening there were engravings, and their borders were square, not round.

The four wheels were underneath the borders, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half.

The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast.

On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it.

He made ten basins of bronze, one basin held forty baths; each basin was four cubits, and on each of the ten stands was one basin.

Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the Lord: the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence;

Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

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

Now it was 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 in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart.

May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us,

On the same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, because there he offered the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings; for the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to hold the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat of the peace offerings.

Now three times in a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to the Lord, burning incense with them on the altar which was before the Lord. So he finished the house.

So she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart.

Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from the king which he did not explain to her.

the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his waiters and their attire, his cupbearers, and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her.

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 the reports, until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. You exceed in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard.

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

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. None was of silver; it was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon.

All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.

Also Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s merchants procured them from Kue for a price.

A chariot was imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150; and by the same means they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of the Arameans.