But the ark of God had been moved by David from Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it, for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem.

Now, O Lord God, let your word to David my father come true; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in number.

Give me now wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go out and come in before this people: for who is able to be the judge of this great people of yours?

And God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you did not make request for money, property, or honour, or for the destruction of your haters, or for long life; but you have made request for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, so that you may be the judge of my people over whom I have made you king:

And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem.

A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

Now it was Solomon's purpose to put up a house for the name of the Lord and a house for himself as king.

And Solomon had seventy thousand men numbered for transport, and eighty thousand for cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers.

And Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying, As you did for my father David, sending him cedar-trees for the building of his house,

See! I am building a house for the name of the Lord my God, to be made holy to him, where perfumes of sweet spices will be burned before him, and the holy bread will be placed at all times, and burned offerings will be offered morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts of the Lord our God. This is a law for ever to Israel.

And the house which I am building is to be great, for our God is greater than all gods.

But who may have strength enough to make a house for him, seeing that the heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be his resting-place? who am I then to make a house for him? But I am building it only for the burning of perfume before him.

And send me cedar-trees, cypress-trees and sandal-wood from Lebanon, for, to my knowledge, your servants are expert wood-cutters in Lebanon; and my servants will be with yours,

To get trees for me in great numbers, for the house which I am building is to be great and a wonder.

Then Huram, king of Tyre, sent Solomon an answer in writing, saying, Because of his love for his people the Lord has made you king over them.

And Huram said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, maker of heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, full of wisdom and good sense, to be the builder of a house for the Lord and a house for himself as king.

The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a man of Tyre, an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron, in stone and wood, in purple and blue and fair linen and red, trained in the cutting of every sort of ornament and the invention of every sort of design; let him be given a place among your expert workmen and those of my lord, your father David.

And he made the most holy place; it was twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, like the greater house, and was plated all over with the best gold; six hundred talents were used for it.

And fifty shekels weight of gold was used for the nails. He had all the higher rooms plated with gold.

And he made ten washing-vessels, putting five on the right side and five on the left; such things as were used in making the burned offering were washed in them; but the great water-vessel was to be used by the priests for washing themselves.

And he made the ten gold supports for the lights, as directions had been given for them, and he put them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left.

Then he made the open space for the priests, and the great open space and its doors, plating the doors with brass.

And Huram made all the pots and the spades and the basins. So he came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of God:

And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars.

All the pots and the spades and the meat-hooks and their vessels, which Huram, who was as his father, made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass.

And the supports for the lights with their lights, to be burning in the regular way in front of the inmost room, of the best gold;

The flowers and the vessels for the lights and the instruments used for them, were all of gold; it was the best gold.

The scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, of the best gold; and the inner doors of the house, opening into the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, were all of gold.

So all the work which Solomon did for the house of the Lord was complete. And Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of God.

Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel, all the chiefs of the tribes and the heads of families of the children of Israel, to come to Jerusalem and take the ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is Zion.

For their wings were outstretched over the place where the ark was, covering the ark and its rods.

Now when the priests had come out of the holy place, (for all the priests who were present had made themselves holy, not keeping to their divisions;

And the Levites who made the music, all of them, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and brothers, robed in fair linen, were in their places with their brass and corded instruments at the east side of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing horns;)

And when the players on horns, and those who made melody in song, with one voice were sounding the praise and glory of the Lord; with loud voices and with wind instruments, and brass and corded instruments of music, praising the Lord and saying, He is good; his mercy is unchanging for ever: then the house was full of the cloud of the glory of the Lord,

So that the priests were not able to keep their places to do their work because of the cloud; for the house of God was full of the glory of the Lord.

Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given the heaven for a living-place, but your living-place was not seen by men,

So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which you may be for ever present.

From the day when I took my people out of the land of Egypt, no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out by me for the building of a house for the resting-place of my name; and I took no man to be a ruler over my people Israel;

Now it was in the heart of my father David to put up a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name:

But you yourself will not be the builder of the house; but your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up a house for my name.

And the Lord has kept his word; for I have taken my father David's place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel, as the Lord gave his word; and I have made the house for the name of the Lord the God of Israel.

(For Solomon had made a brass stage, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had put it in the middle of the open space; on this he took his place and went down on his knees before all the meeting of Israel, stretching out his hands to heaven.)

And he said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth; keeping faith and mercy unchanging for your servants, while they go in your ways with all their hearts;

For you have kept the word which you gave to your servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and with your hand you have made it come true this day.

Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your servant and to his prayer for grace, O Lord my God, and give ear to the cry and the prayer which your servant makes before you;

Then give ear from heaven, so that the sin of your servants and the sin of your people Israel may have forgiveness, when you make clear to them the good way in which they are to go; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for their heritage.

Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house:

Then give ear from heaven your living-place, answering with forgiveness, and give to every man, whose secret heart is open to you, the reward of all his ways; (for you, and you only, have knowledge of the hearts of the children of men;)

And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of your people Israel but comes from a far country because of the glory of your name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm; when he comes to make his prayer, turning to this house:

If your people go out to war against their attackers, by whatever way you may send them, if they make their prayers to you turning their faces to this town of yours and to this house which I have put up for your name:

Then give ear from heaven to their prayer and their cry for grace, and see right done to them.

If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without sin,) and you are angry with them, and give them up into the power of those who are fighting against them, so that they take them away prisoners to a land far off or near;

If with all their heart and soul they are turned again to you, in the land where they are prisoners, the land where they have been taken, and make their prayers, turning their eyes to their land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I have made for your name:

O Lord God, let him whom you have taken for yourself never be given up by you: keep in mind your mercies to David your servant.

Now when Solomon's prayers were ended, fire came down from heaven, burning up all the offerings; and the house was full of the glory of the Lord.

And the priests were not able to go into the house of the Lord, for the Lord's house was full of the glory of the Lord.

And all the children of Israel were looking on when the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house; and they went down on their knees, with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising the Lord, and saying, He is good; for his mercy is unchanging for ever.

And the priests were in their places, and the Levites with their instruments of music for the Lord's song, which David the king had made for the praise of the Lord whose mercy is unchanging for ever, when David gave praise by their hand; and the priests were sounding horns before them; and all Israel were on their feet.

Then Solomon made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering the burned offerings there, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar which Solomon had made for all the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat.

So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as the river of Egypt.

And on the eighth day they had a holy meeting; the offerings for making the altar holy went on for seven days, and the feast for seven days.

So Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house; and everything which it was in his mind to make in the house of the Lord and for himself had been well done.

Now the Lord came to Solomon in a vision by night, and said to him, I have given ear to your prayer, and have taken this place for myself as a house where offerings are to be made.

If, at my word, heaven is shut up, so that there is no rain, or if I send locusts on the land for its destruction, or if I send disease on my people;

If my people, on whom my name is named, make themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to their land.

For I have taken this house for myself and made it holy, so that my name may be there for ever; and my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

And as for you, if you will go on your way before me as David your father did, doing whatever I have given you orders to do and keeping my laws and my decisions:

Then I will have this people uprooted out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will put away from before my eyes, and make it an example and a word of shame among all peoples.

And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord, the God of their fathers, who took them out of the land of Egypt, and took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why he has sent all this evil on them.

Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the house of the Lord and a house for himself,

He took in hand the building up of the towns which Huram had given him, causing the children of Israel to make living-places for themselves there.

As for all the rest of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel:

But Solomon did not make use of the children of Israel as servants for his work; they were men of war, his chiefs and his captains, and captains of his war-carriages and his horsemen.

Then Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her; for he said, I will not have my wife living in the house of David, king of Israel, because those places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy.

And he gave the divisions of the priests their places for their work, as ordered by his father David, and to the Levites he gave their work of praise and waiting on the priests, to do what was needed day by day; and he gave the door-keepers their places in turn at every door; for so David, the man of God, had given orders.

And Huram sent him, by his servants, ships and experienced seamen, who went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and came back with four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they took to King Solomon.

But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I came and saw for myself; and truly, word was not given me of half your great wisdom; you are much greater than they said.

Praise be to the Lord your God whose pleasure it was to put you on the seat of his kingdom to be king for the Lord your God: because, in his love for Israel, it was the purpose of your God to make them strong for ever, he made you king over them, to be their judge in righteousness.

And with the sandal-wood the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, and instruments of music for the makers of melody; never before had such been seen in the land of Judah.

And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what she had taken to the king. So she went back to her country with her servants.

And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of hammered gold, using three hundred shekels of gold for every cover, and the king put them in the house of the Woods of Lebanon.

For the king had Tarshish-ships sailing with the servants of Huram: once every three years the Tarshish-ships came back with gold and silver, ivory and monkeys and peacocks.

And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices, and horses and beasts for transport, regularly year by year.

Solomon had four thousand buildings for his horses and his war-carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king in Jerusalem.

And he was ruler over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the limit of Egypt.

They got horses for Solomon from Egypt and from every land.

Solomon was king over Israel in Jerusalem for forty years.

And when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had news of it, (for he was in Egypt where he had gone in flight from King Solomon,) he came back from Egypt.

And they sent for him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

And they said to him, If you are kind to this people, pleasing them and saying good words to them, then they will be your servants for ever.

So the king did not give ear to the people; for this came about by the purpose of God, so that the Lord might give effect to his word which he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.

And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and got together the men of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam.

The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers: let every man go back to his house, for this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the words of the Lord and were turned back from fighting against Jeroboam.

For the Levites gave up their living-places and their property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had sent them away, not letting them be priests to the Lord;

And he himself made priests for the high places, and for the images of he-goats and oxen which he had made.

So they went on increasing the power of the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong for three years; and for three years they went in the ways of David and Solomon.

Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, was dearer to Rehoboam than all his wives and his servant-wives: (for he had eighteen wives and sixty servant-wives, and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)

Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Maacah, chief and ruler among his brothers, for it was his purpose to make him king.

And in his wisdom he had his sons stationed in every walled town through all the lands of Judah and Benjamin; and he gave them a great store of food, and took wives for them.