And Solomon the son of David strengthened himself concerning his kingdom, and Yahweh his God [was] with him and made him exceedingly great.

And Solomon and the whole assembly with him went to the high place that [was] at Gibeon, for the tent of assembly of God that Moses the servant of Yahweh had made in the desert was there.

(But the ark of God David had brought up from Kiriath-Jearim to [the place] David had prepared for it, for David had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.)

And the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made [was] there before the tabernacle of Yahweh. And Solomon and the assembly sought it out.

And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before Yahweh, which [was] at the tent of assembly, and he offered upon it a thousand burnt offerings.

On that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask what I shall give to you."

Then Solomon said to God, "You yourself have shown steadfast loyal love to David my father and have made me king in his place.

Now, O Yahweh God, let your word to David my father be fulfilled, for you yourself have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

Now, give to me wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this, your great people?"

Then God said to Solomon, "Because this was with your heart and you did not ask for wealth, possessions, honor, and the lives of your enemies, and also did not ask for {long life}, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge that you might judge my people over whom I have made you king,

wisdom and knowledge is given to you. And I will [also] give to you wealth, possessions, and honor, the like of which was not had by the kings who [were] before you, nor will there be the like after you."

And Solomon's horses [were] imported from Egypt and from Kue. The traders of the king received [them] from Kue at a price.

They went up and exported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for one hundred and fifty [shekels]. And [these were] {likewise exported} to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

And Solomon planned to build a house for the name of Yahweh and a {royal palace for himself}.

And Solomon sent [word] to Huram king of Tyre, saying, "As you have dealt with David my father and sent cedar to him to build for himself a house in which to live, [please deal with me].

Look, I am building a house for the name of Yahweh my God to dedicate to him, to offer sweet spices of incense before him, and [for] the regular rows [of bread], and burnt offerings for mornings, evenings, Sabbaths, and new moon festivals, and for appointed feasts of Yahweh our God which [are] everlasting for Israel.

And the house that I am building [will be] great, for our God [is] greater than all gods.

Now who indeed has adequate strength to build a house for him? For the heavens and {the highest heavens} are not able to contain him. Now who [am] I that I would build a house for him, except to burn incense before him?

So then, send to me skilled men to work with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and with purple, crimson, and blue fabric, knowledgeable in engraving, with the skilled men who [are] with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father has established.

Send me trees of cedar, cypress, and algum from Lebanon, for I myself know that your servants [are] knowledgeable in cutting the trees of Lebanon. Now see, my servants [will be] with your servants

to prepare trees in abundance for me, for the house that I am building [will be] great and wonderful.

Now see, I will provide twenty thousand dry measures of crushed wheat, twenty thousand dry measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil to the woodcarvers and those who cut timber."

Then Huram king of Tyre answered in a letter, and he sent [word] to Solomon: "Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them."

Then Huram said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has made the heavens and the earth, who has given to King David a wise son knowing discretion and understanding, who will build for Yahweh a house and a royal palace for himself.

So now I have sent a skilled man, knowledgeable [and with] understanding: my master Huram,

a son of a woman from the daughters of Dan, and his father [was] a man of Tyre, knowledgeable for working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and with purple, blue, and crimson fabric, and with fine linen, for engraving any engraving and devising any plan that is given to him, with your skilled men and the skilled men of my lord David your father.

And we ourselves will cut trees from Lebanon according to all your need, and we will bring them to you on rafts over the sea to Joppa, so that you may bring them up to Jerusalem."

Then Solomon counted all the resident alien men who [were] in the land of Israel after the census that David his father had taken of them. And there were found one hundred and fifty-three thousand.

Then Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had established, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

And its thickness [was] a handbreadth, and its brim [was] like the working of the lip of a cup, the blossom of a lily. And it held three thousand baths.

And he made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the south and five on the north. And he made a hundred drinking bowls of gold.

And Huram-abi made for King Solomon the pots, the shovels, the three-pronged meat forks, and all the utensils of polished bronze for the house of Yahweh.

When all the work that Solomon did for the house of Yahweh was finished, Solomon brought the holy objects of David his father: the silver, the gold, and all the objects he had put into the storehouses of the house of God.

Then Solomon assembled all the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the {families} for the {Israelites}, to Jerusalem in order to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, which [is] Zion.

Then the priests brought up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, into {the most holy place}, underneath the wings of the cherubim.

There was nothing in the ark but the two stone tablets that Moses had put [inside] at Horeb [on] which Yahweh had {made} a covenant with the {Israelites} when they went out from Egypt.

And when the priests came out of the sanctuary (for all the priests who were present sanctified themselves without keeping their divisions)

and all the Levitical singers--Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their sons, their brothers, dressed [in] fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and stringed instruments--[they] were standing to the east of the altar. And with them outside [were] one hundred and twenty priests [who were] trumpet blowers.

And it was the primary [duty] of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard [with] one voice, to praise and give thanks to Yahweh. And when a sound from the trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments of song was raised to Yahweh--for he [is] good, because his loyal love [is] everlasting--then the house, the house of Yahweh, was filled with a cloud.

And the priests were not able to stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God.

Then Solomon said, "Yahweh has decided to dwell in the deep gloom.

But I have built for you an exalted house, even a place for you to dwell in forever."

And he said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth with David my father, and with his hands he has fulfilled [it], saying,

'From the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt I did not choose a city among all the tribes of Israel to build a house in order for my name [to be] there. Nor did I choose a man to be leader over my people Israel.

But I have chosen my name to be there in Jerusalem, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.'

Now, it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

But Yahweh said to David my father, 'Because it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart,

but you yourself will not build the house, but your son who will proceed from your loins; he himself will build the house for my name.'

Now Yahweh has fulfilled his word that he spoke. I have risen in the place of David my father and am seated on the throne of Israel as Yahweh has spoken. I have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

And I have there the ark [in] which [is] the covenant of Yahweh that he {made} with the {Israelites}."

Then Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh before all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

(For Solomon had made a platform of bronze five cubits long and five cubits wide and three cubits high, and placed it in the midst of the outer court.) And he stood upon it, then knelt down on his knees before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands to heaven.

And he said, "O Yahweh, God of Israel, there is none like you, a God in the heavens and on the earth, keeping the covenant and loyal love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart,

that you have kept for your servant David my father what you spoke to him. You spoke with your mouth, and by your hand you have fulfilled [it] on this day.

And now, O Yahweh, God of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father, what you have spoken to him, saying, '{You shall not lack} a man to sit on the throne of Israel before me, if only your sons keep their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.'

And now, O Yahweh, God of Israel, let your word that you have spoken to your servant David be confirmed.

"But will God indeed dwell with humankind upon the earth? Look, the heavens and {the highest heavens} cannot contain you! Surely then this house that I have built [will not contain you!]

But turn to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Yahweh my God, to hearken to the pleading and to the prayer that your servant is praying before you,

that your eyes may be open day and night to this house, to the place that you have promised to place your name there, that you may hear the prayer that your servant has prayed to this place.

And listen to the pleas of your servant and your people Israel when they pray toward this place, that you yourself might hear from the place of your dwelling, from the heavens, that you might hear and forgive.

"If a man sins against his neighbor and {makes him swear an oath} and comes [with] an oath before your altar in this house,

then may you yourself hear from the heavens and act and judge your servants, to repay the guilty by bringing his way upon his head and to vindicate the righteous by giving to him according to his righteousness.

"And if your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against you and they repent and confess your name and pray and plead before you in this house,

then may you yourself hear from the heavens and forgive the sin of your people Israel and again bring them back to the land that you gave to them and to their ancestors.

"When the heavens are stopped up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you and they pray to this place and confess your name and turn back from their sin when you humble them,

then may you yourself hear from the heavens and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk, and give rain upon your land that you have given to your people as an inheritance.

"If there is a famine in the land; if there is disease, blight, mildew, locust, and caterpillar; if it happens that his enemy lays siege to him in the land [and] his gates; any kind of plague, any kind of disease,

[then] any prayer, any plea that is [made] by any person and by all your people Israel, each one who knows his own affliction and his own anguish and [who] spreads out his hands to this house,

then may you yourself hear from the heavens, your dwelling place, and forgive and give to each according to all his ways, since you know the heart of the children of humankind,

that they may fear you [and] walk in your ways all the days that they [are] alive upon the face of the land that you have given to our ancestors.

"And also, with respect to the foreigner, he who [is] not of your people Israel, but comes from a distant land, for the sake of your great name and your powerful hand and outstretched arm, when he comes and prays to this house,

then may you yourself hear from the heavens, from your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner asks of you, so that all peoples of earth will know of your name and fear you, as [do] your people Israel, and that they may know that your name {possesses} this house that I have built.

"When your people go out to battle against their enemy according to the way that you have sent them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name,

then may you hear their prayer and their pleas from the heavens and uphold their case.

When they sin against you--for there is no person who does not sin--and you become angry with them and place them before their enemy that they carry them away as captives to a land far or near,

but {if they repent} in the land where they were taken captive and {repent} and beg you for mercy in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned and acted perversely and done wickedly,

and we return to you,' with their whole heart and with all their inmost being in the land of their captivity where they took them captive, and [if] they pray toward their land that you have given to their ancestors and the city that you have chosen and to the house that I have built for your name,

then may you hear their prayer and their pleas from the heavens, from your dwelling place, and uphold their case and forgive your people who sinned against you.

Now, O my God, please let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place!

"And now arise, O Yahweh God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength! O Yahweh God, let the priests be clothed with salvation, and let your holy ones rejoice in your goodness!

O Yahweh God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one! Remember the loyal love of your servant, David!"

And when Solomon finished praying, then fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of Yahweh filled the house.

And the priests were not able to go into the house of Yahweh, for the glory of Yahweh had filled the house.

When all the {Israelites} saw the fire come down and the glory of Yahweh upon the house, they knelt down [with their] faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to Yahweh, for [he is] good, for his loyal love [is] everlasting.

Then the king and all the people were offering a sacrifice before Yahweh.

And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

And the priests stood at their posts with the Levites, with the instruments of the song of Yahweh that King David had made to give thanks to Yahweh--for his loyal love [is] everlasting--whenever David offered praise by their hand. Now the priests sounded trumpets [standing] opposite them, and all Israel stood.

And Solomon consecrated the middle of the courtyard that [was] before the house of Yahweh, for there he had made the burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, for the bronze altar that Solomon had made was not able to hold the burnt offerings, cereal offerings, and the fat.

And Solomon held a feast at that time [of] seven days. And all Israel [was] with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-Hamath to the river of Egypt.

And on the eighth day they made a solemn assembly, for they held the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days.

And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents rejoicing and festive of heart on account of the goodness that Yahweh had done for David, Solomon, and Israel his people.

And Solomon finished the house of Yahweh and the house of the king. And all that came into the heart of Solomon to do with respect to the house of Yahweh and his own house he accomplished.

Then Yahweh appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

When I hold back the heavens so that there is not rain, and when I command the locust to devour the earth, and if I send disease among my people,

[then if] my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and will pray and will seek my face and will turn from their evil ways, then I myself shall hear from the heavens and will forgive their sins and heal their land.

And now I have chosen and consecrated this house for my name to be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there {for all time}.

Now [as for] you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked and do according to all that I have commanded you and will keep my ordinances and judgments,

then I will establish the throne of your kingdom as I promised to David your father, saying, 'A man shall not be cut off for you [from] ruling over Israel.'

"But if you turn yourselves away and forsake my ordinances and my commandments which I have given before you [all] and will go and serve other gods and bow down to them,

then I will uproot them from upon my land that I have given to them, and this house that I have consecrated for my name I will send away from before my face, and I will make it a proverb and a taunt among all the nations.