Solomon replied to God, "You demonstrated great loyalty to my father David and have made me king in his place.

Now, Lord God, may your promise to my father David be realized, for you have made me king over a great nation as numerous as the dust of the earth.

And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thy heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of them that hate thee, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked for thyself wisdom and knowledge, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king:

wisdom and knowledge are granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches and wealth and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall any after thee have the like.

And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and came to have a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, - and he settled them in chariot cities, and with the king, in Jerusalem.

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].

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.

Now send me a skilled man to work in gold, silver, brass and iron, and in purple, crimson and violet fabrics, and who knows how to make engravings, to work with the skilled men whom I have in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided.

Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees out of Lebanon: for I know that thy servants have skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and behold, my servants shall be with thy servants,

And lo! for the hewers that cut the timbers, have I given wheat as food for thy servants, twenty thousand measures, and barley, twenty thousand measures, and wine, twenty thousand baths, and oil, twenty thousand baths.

Now, therefore, have I sent a wise man, skilled in understanding, pertaining to Huram my father:

He is the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan. His father is a man of Tyre. He knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, with purple, blue, crimson yarn, and fine linen. He knows how to do all kinds of engraving and to execute any design that may be given him. I have sent him to be with your craftsmen and the craftsmen of my lord, your father David.

And we will have wood cut from Lebanon, as much as you have need of, and will send it to you on flat boats by sea to Joppa, and from there you may take it up to Jerusalem.

And he cast a brazen sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, and round in compass and five cubits high: and a line of thirty cubits might have compassed it round about.

and they bring up the ark, and the tent of meeting, and all the vessels of the sanctuary that are in the tent; brought them up have the priests, the Levites;

And they drew out the staves, and the heads of the staves could be seen out of the ark, in front of the shrine, although they could not be seen on the outside, - and it came to pass that they have remained there - unto this day.

And it cometh to pass, in the going out of the priests from the sanctuary -- for all the priests who are present have sanctified themselves, there is none to watch by courses,

and the priests have not been able to stand to minister from the presence of the cloud, for the honour of Jehovah hath filled the house of God.

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,

But I have built a house of habitation for thee, even a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.

He told David, 'Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a temple in which to live. Nor did I choose a man as leader of my people Israel.

but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.

The Lord told my father David, 'It is right for you to have a strong desire to build a temple to honor me.

And Jehovah has performed his word which he spoke; and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah promised, and I have built the house unto the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.

And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of Jehovah, which he made with the children of Israel.

You have kept your word to your servant, my father David; this very day you have fulfilled what you promised.

Now, O Lord God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant, my father David, when you said, 'You will never fail to have a successor ruling before me on the throne of Israel, provided that your descendants watch their step and obey my law as you have done.'

Now therefore, O Lord, the God of Israel, let Your word be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant David.

But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!

Yet have respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, Jehovah, my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee;

that Your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place in which You have said that You would put Your Name (Presence), to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place.

And give ear to the prayers of your servant and of your people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning to this place; give ear from heaven your living-place; and hearing have mercy.

If a man have sinned against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to adjure him, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;

And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication before thee in this house;

Then give ear from heaven, and let the sin of your people Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.

When the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, because thou hast afflicted them;

then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly you will then teach them the right way to live and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess.

Famine, when it is in the land, pestilence, when it is, blasting, and mildew, locust, and caterpillar, when they are, when its enemies have distressed it in the land -- its gates, any plague and any sickness;

whatsoever prayer, whatsoever supplication, which any son of earth may have, or any of thy people Israel, - when any man shall come to know his plague, or his pain, and so he shall spread abroad his hands towards 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;)

that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.

'And also, unto the stranger who is not of Thy people Israel, and he hath come from a land afar off for the sake of Thy great name, and Thy strong hand, and Thy stretched-out arm, and they have come in and prayed towards this house:

then hear thou from the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; in order that all peoples of the earth may know thy name, and may fear thee as do thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.

If thy people go out to battle against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;

If they have sinned against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou be angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, and they have carried them away captives unto a land far off or near;

and if they shall take it to heart in the land whither they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done iniquity and have dealt perversely;

and if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land which thou gavest unto their fathers, and the city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;

Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee.

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.

and the priests have not been able to go in unto the house of Jehovah, because the honour of Jehovah hath filled the house of Jehovah.

And they make on the eighth day a restraint, because the dedication of the altar they have made seven days, and the feast seven days.

Then Jehovah appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: I have heard thy prayer, and I have chosen for myself this place for a house of sacrifice.

"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for a sacrificial temple to me. Whenever I close the skies so there is no rain, or whenever I command locusts to lay waste to the land, or whenever I send epidemics among my people,

for I have now chosen and hallowed this house, that my name may be there for ever; and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and mine ordinances;

then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to rule over Israel.

But if ye turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them;

then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed to my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

And they shall say, Because they forsook Jehovah the God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and have attached themselves to other gods, and have worshipped them and served them; therefore he has brought upon them all this evil.

of their sons who have been left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel consumed not -- doth Solomon lift up a tribute unto this day.

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 they have not turned aside from the command of the king concerning the priests and the Levites, in reference to any matter, and to the treasures.

"Everything I heard about your wisdom and what you have to say is true!" she gasped,

"but I didn't believe it at first! But then I came here and I've seen it for myself! It's amazing! I wasn't told half of what's really great about your wisdom. You're far better in person than what the reports have said about you!

And also, servants of Huram, and servants of Solomon, who brought in gold from Ophir, have brought in algum-trees and precious stone.

The king used the algum wood to have steps made for the LORD's Temple and for the royal palace, as well as lyres and harps for the choir, and nothing like that wood had been seen before in the territory of Judah.

And Rehoboam goeth to Shechem, for to Shechem have all Israel come to cause him to reign.

And king Rehoboam consulteth with the aged men who have been standing before Solomon his father in his being alive, saying, 'How are ye counselling to answer this people?'

And they speak unto him, saying, 'If thou dost become good to this people, and hast been pleased with them, and spoken unto them good words, then they have been to thee servants all the days.'

And he forsaketh the counsel of the aged men that they counselled him, and consulteth with the lads who have grown up with him, those standing before him,

And he said to them, What advice give ye that we may return answer to this people, who have spoken to me saying, Lighten the yoke which thy father put upon us?

And the young men that had grown up with him spoke to him saying, Thus shalt thou say to the people who have spoken to thee saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, and lighten thou it for us, thus shalt thou say to them: My little finger is thicker than my father's loins;

And all Israel saw that the king hearkened not to them; and the people answered the king saying, What portion have we in David? and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel. Now see to thine own house, David! And all Israel went to their tents.

The Lord says this: "Do not attack and make war with your brothers. Each of you go home, for I have caused this to happen."'" They obeyed the Lord and called off the attack against Jeroboam.

And the priests, and the Levites, that are in all Israel, have stationed themselves by him, out of all their border,

for the Levites have left their suburbs and their possession, and they come to Judah and to Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons have cast them off from acting as priests to Jehovah,

and after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, those giving their heart to seek Jehovah, God of Israel, have come in to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Jehovah, God of their father.

with a thousand and two hundred chariots, and with sixty thousand horsemen, and there is no number to the people who have come with him out of Egypt -- Lubim, Sukkiim, and Cushim --

And Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah that had gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, Thus saith Jehovah: Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

And when Jehovah saw that they humbled themselves, the word of Jehovah came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves: I will not destroy them, but I will grant them a little deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

and it cometh to pass, from the time of the going in of the king to the house of Jehovah, the runners have come in and lifted them up, and brought them back unto the chamber of the runners.

And in his being humbled, turned back from him hath the wrath of Jehovah, so as not to destroy to completion; and also, in Judah there have been good things.

And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them.

And now ye think to shew yourselves strong against the kingdom of Jehovah in the hand of the sons of David; and ye are a great multitude, and ye have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made you for gods.

Have ye not driven out the priests of Yahweh, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, - and made for yourselves priests like the peoples of the countries? Whosoever cometh to install himself with a young bullock, and seven rams, then becometh he a priest unto the, no-gods.

But, as for us, Yahweh, is our God, and we have not forsaken him, - and, the priests who are waiting upon Yahweh, are sons of Aaron, with Levites in the work;

and they are making a perfume unto Yahweh, with ascending-sacrifices morning by morning, and evening by evening and an incense of sweet spices, and are putting in order bread upon the pure table, and the lampstand of gold with the lamps thereof, for lighting up evening by evening, for, observant, are we of the charge of Yahweh our God, - whereas, ye, have forsaken him.

And behold, we have God with us at our head, and his priests, and the loud-sounding trumpets to sound an alarm against you. Children of Israel, do not fight with Jehovah the God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.

And the sons of Israel are humbled at that time, and the sons of Judah are strong, for they have leant on Jehovah, God of their fathers.

Therefore said he to Judah, Let us build these cities, and let us surround them with walls and towers, doors and bars, while the land is yet before us, for we have sought Yahweh our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built, and prospered.

Then Asa cried out unto Yahweh his God, and said, O Yahweh, it is, nothing with thee, to help whether with many or with such as have no strength. Help us, O Yahweh our God, for, on thee, do we lean, and, in thy name, have we come against this multitude, - O Yahweh! our God, thou art, let not, weak man, have power against thee.

and Asa and the people who are with him pursue them even to Gerar, and there fall of the Cushim, for they have no preserving, because they have been broken before Jehovah, and before His camp; and they bear away very much spoil,

and also tents of cattle they have smitten, and they capture sheep in abundance, and camels, and turn back to Jerusalem.

and they have been beaten down, nation by nation, and city by city, for God hath troubled them with every adversity;

and gathereth all Judah and Benjamin, and the sojourners with them out of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and out of Simeon -- for they have fallen unto him from Israel in abundance, in their seeing that Jehovah his God is with him.

and sacrifice to Jehovah on that day from the spoil they have brought in -- oxen seven hundred, and sheep seven thousand,

and rejoice do all Judah concerning the oath, for with all their heart they have sworn, and with all their good-will they have sought Him, and He is found of them, and Jehovah giveth rest to them round about.

yet the high places have not turned aside from Israel; only, the heart of Asa hath been perfect all his days.

In the thirty sixth year of the reign of Asa, came Baasha king of Israel against Judah and built Ramah - to the intent that he would let none that pertained to Asa king of Judah have passage in and out.

Let there be a covenant, between me and thee, as between my father and thy father. - Lo! I have sent thee silver and gold, go break thy covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may go up from me.