Now King David had become old, {advanced in years}, and they covered him with garments, but he was not warm.

Now the young woman was very beautiful; she was of use for the king, and she served him, but the king did not {have sexual relations with her}.

Now Adonijah the son of Haggith was exalting himself, saying, "I will be king," so he prepared for himself a chariot and horsemen and fifty men running before him.

His father did not rebuke him {at any time} [by] saying, "Why did you do so?" Now he was also very handsome of appearance; she had borne him after Absalom.

So Bathsheba went to the king in the private room. Now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunnamite was attending the king.

While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet came [in].

If it was from my lord the king that this thing has happened, [then all is well,] but if not, you must let your servants know who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him."

As Yahweh was with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David."

While he was still speaking, suddenly Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came. Adonijah said, "Come, for you are a man of valor, and you bring good news."

Adonijah was afraid because of Solomon, and he got up and went and grasped the horns of the altar.

Solomon was told, "Look, Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon, and he has grasped the horns of the altar, saying, 'Let King Solomon swear to me {first} that he will surely not kill his servant with the sword!'"

"Moreover, you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me when he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner son of Ner and to Amasa son of Jether, and he murdered them and put the blood of war in [a time of] peace. He put the blood of war on the leather belt that was on his waist and on the sandals which were on his feet.

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

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

He said, "You know that the kingship was mine and that all Israel had set their face toward me as king, but the kingship turned around and became my brother's, for it was from Yahweh for him [to have it].

It was told to King Solomon that Joab had fled to the tent of Yahweh and was beside the altar. So Solomon sent [word] to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go and fall upon him."

So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, and he fell on him and killed him, and he was buried in his house in the wilderness.

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

Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and fell upon him, and he died. So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

Solomon loved Yahweh, by walking in the statutes of David his father; only he [was] sacrificing and offering incense on the high places.

So the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice, for the great high place [was] there. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

The word was good in the eyes of [the] Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

behold, I do hereby do according to your word. I hereby give you a wise and discerning heart; there was no one like you before you, nor afterwards will one like you arise.

Then Solomon awoke, and look, [it was] a dream, and he came [to] Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of [the] Lord, and he offered burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings, and he held a feast for all of his servants.

It happened on the third day [after] my giving birth, this woman also gave birth, and we [were] together. There was not anyone with us in the house, only the two of us [were] in the house.

So she got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she put him in her lap, and she put her dead son in my lap.

When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead! When I looked closely at him in the morning, behold, it was not my son whom I had borne."

Then the woman whose son [was] the living one spoke to the king because her compassion was aroused for her son, and she said, "Please, my lord, give her the living child, but certainly do not kill him!" The other one [was] saying, "As for me, so for you! Divide [him]!"

When all of Israel heard the judgment that the king had rendered, they {stood in awe} of the king, because they realized that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.

King Solomon was king over all Israel.

Now these are the officials who were his: Azariah the son of Zadok [was] the priest.

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

Benaiah the son of Jehoiada [was] over the army, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests.

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

Ahishar [was] over the palace, and Adoniram the son of Abda [was] over the forced labor.

Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel, and they sustained the king and his palace, {each one was to sustain for each month of the year}.

These [are] their names: Ben-Hur [was] in the hill country of Ephraim.

Ben-Deker [was] in Makaz and in Shaalbim and in Beth-Shemesh and Elon of Beth-Hanan.

Ben-Hesed [was] in the Arubbot; Socoh and all the land of Hepher [were] his.

Ben-Abinadab [was] in all of Naphat of Dor; Taphath the daughter of Solomon was his wife.

Baanah the son of Ahilud [was] in Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-Shean which [is] beside Zarethan below Jezreel, of Beth-Shean up to Abel-Meholah up to the other side of Jokmeam.

Ben-Geber [was] in Ramoth-Gilead; the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh which are in the Gilead [were] his, and the region of Argob which [is] in the Bashan, sixty great cities, with walls [having] crossbars of bronze, [were] his.

Ahinadab the son of Iddo [was in] Mahanaim.

Ahimaaz [was] in Naphtali; he moreover also had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife.

Baanah the son of Hushai [was] in Asher and Bealoth.

Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah [was] in Issachar.

Shimei the son of Ela [was] in Benjamin.

Geber the son of Uri [was] in the land of Gilead, the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and of Og, the king of Bashan; one governor which [was] over the land.

Now Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms from the River [to] the land of [the] Philistines, and up to the border of Egypt, who [were] bringing tribute and [were] serving Solomon all the days of his life.

The food of Solomon for one day was thirty dry measures of choice meal and sixty dry measures of flour;

For he [was] ruling over all the west of the River from Tiphsah up to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River; and he had peace from every side all around.

The wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the people of [the] east and more than all the wisdom of Egypt.

He was wiser than all the men: Ethan the Ezrahite; Heman, Calcol, and Darda the children of Mahol; and {he was very well known}.

"You knew David my father, that he was not able to build a house for the name of Yahweh his God, {in view of the warfare} which surrounded him, until Yahweh placed them under the soles of his feet.

So Hiram was giving to Solomon the cedar timbers and the cypress timbers, {everything he needed}.

Yahweh gave wisdom to Solomon as he promised to him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them {made} a covenant.

He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand {every month}; the work groups were a month in Lebanon and two months at home; now Adoniram was over the forced labor.

Now the house that King Solomon built for Yahweh [was] sixty cubits [in] its length and twenty cubits [in] its width and thirty cubits [in] its height.

The vestibule on the face of the main hall of the temple [was] twenty cubits [in] its length, and the width of the temple [was] ten cubits wide on the face of the temple.

The lower structure [was] five cubits in its width and the middle [was] six cubits in its width and the third [was] seven cubits in its width, for he made niches for the temple all around to the outside, [so that] beams [would] not attach to the walls of the temple.

Now while the temple was being built, it was built [with] stones finished [at the] quarry, [so that] no hammer or stone shaping tool or any instrument of iron was heard in the temple as it was being built.

The doorway of the side room in the middle of the side of the temple [was] on the south; they went up with a stairway to the middle and from the middle to the third [floor].

The main hall of the temple was forty cubits {in front of the inner sanctuary},

with the cedar within the inner house [having] carvings of gourds and buds of flowers. It [was] entirely of cedar; there was not a stone visible.

In front, the inner sanctuary [was] twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and twenty cubits high, and he overlaid it [with] pure gold and covered the altar [with] cedar.

All of the temple he overlaid with gold until all of the temple [was] finished; all of the altar which belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

Five cubits [was] the first wing of the cherub, and five cubits the second wing of the cherub, from the tip of his [one] wing up to the tip of his [other] wing.

The second cherub [was] ten cubits [according to] {the same} measurement, and [there] was one shape for the two cherubim.

The height of the first cherub [was] ten cubits and so [was] the second cherub.

He placed the cherubim in the middle of the inner house, and they spread out the wings of the cherubim; the wing of the first cherub touched against the wall and the wing of the second cherub [was] touching against the second wall; their wings [spread] to the middle of the house [and were] touching wing to wing.

In the fourth year, the house of Yahweh was founded in the month of Ziv.

In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, that is, the eighth month, the house was finished [according] to all his specifications and [according] to all his plans. He had built it in seven years.

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

The hall of pillars he made fifty cubits [in] its length and thirty cubits [in] its width, and a porch [was] {in front of them}, with pillars and an overhang {in front of them}.

He made the hall of the throne where he [would] pronounce judgment, the hall of justice, and [it was] covered with cedar from the floor to the rafters.

His house where he would live in the next courtyard on the inside of the porch was like this work, and he would make a house like this porch for the daughter of Pharaoh whom Solomon had taken [as wife].

[The] foundation [was of] precious stones, [and] large stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits

He [was] the son of a widow woman from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father [was] a man of Tyre, an artisan of bronze. He was filled with wisdom and with ability and with the knowledge to do all the work with the bronze. And he came to King Solomon, and he did all of his work.

He cast the two pillars [out of] bronze; eighteen cubits [was] the height of the first, and a cord of twelve cubits would encircle the second pillar.

He made two capitals to place on the tops of the pillars [out of] molten bronze; the first capital [was] five cubits [in] height, and the second capital [was] five cubits [in] height.

And capitals [were] on the two pillars above near the bulging section which was beside the lattice, and two hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments [were] in rows all around on the second capital.

On the top of the pillars [was] a work of lilies; and so the work of the pillars [was] finished.

He also made the molten sea, ten cubits {in diameter}, and five cubits [was] its height. A measuring line of thirty cubits would encircle it all around.

[The sea] was standing on twelve oxen, with three facing to the north, three facing to the west, three facing to the south, and three facing to the east. The sea [was] on top of them, with all of their hindquarters [turned] to the inside.

Its thickness [was] a handbreadth, but its rim [was] as the work on the brim of a cup, [like the] bud of a lily; it held two thousand baths.

He made the ten stands of bronze; each stand [was] four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits in height.

Now this [was] the construction of the stands: there [were] frames for them and frames between the crossbars,

Its opening from [the] inside of the capital and above [was] a cubit; its pedestal [was] a round work of a cubit and a half; moreover, on its opening [were] the carvings with four-sided frames, not circular.

Four of the wheels [were] underneath the frames, and the axles of the wheels [were] on the stands. The height of each wheel [was] a cubit and a half.

The construction of the wheel [was] like the construction of the wheel of the chariot; their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their naves [were] all cast.

On top of the stand [was] half a cubit deep, circular all around, and on the top of the stand [were] its supports and its frames.

He also made ten bronze basins, [each] holding forty baths; each basin [was] four cubits, one basin on each of the ten stands.

Hiram also made the basins and the shovels and the bowls for drinking wine; and so Hiram finished doing all of the work {that he was to do} for King Solomon in the house of Yahweh:

Solomon also made all of the vessels which [were] in the house of Yahweh: the golden altar and the golden table on which [was] the bread of the presence;

[When] all of the work which king Solomon did on the house of Yahweh was completed, Solomon brought out the holy objects of his father David, the silver and the gold and the vessels, [which] he put in the treasury rooms of the house of Yahweh.

There was not [anything] in the ark {except} the two tablets of stone which Moses had placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh {made} [a covenant] with the {Israelites} after they went out from the land of Egypt.

[Then] the king turned his face around, and he blessed all of the assembly of Israel. (Now all the assembly of Israel was standing).

but Yahweh said to David my father, 'Because {you desired} to build a house for my name, you did well in that it was within your heart.

May Yahweh our God be with us as he was with our ancestors, and may he not leave us or abandon us,

On that day the king consecrated the middle of the courtyard before the house of Yahweh because he offered there the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat of the fellowship offerings because the bronze altar that was in the presence of Yahweh was too small to hold the burnt offerings and the grain offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings.