However, Yahweh said to my father David,
“Since it was your desire to build a temple for My name,
you have done well to have this desire.

Yet, you are not the one to build the temple,
but your son, your own offspring,
will build the temple for My name.”

So Yahweh has fulfilled what He promised.
I have taken the place of my father David
and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised.
I have built the temple for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

and set up in it a place for the ark containing the covenant the Lord made with the Israelites."

For Solomon had made a bronze platform 7½ feet long, 7½ feet wide, and 4½ feet high and put it in the court. He stood on it, knelt down in front of the entire congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven.

and saith, 'O Jehovah God of Israel, there is not like Thee a god in the heavens and in the earth, keeping the covenant and the kindness for Thy servants who are walking before Thee 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.'

(for is it true? -- God dwelleth with man on the earth! Lo, the heavens, and the heavens of the heavens, do not contain Thee, how much less this house that I have built?)

Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you;

Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live. May you answer your servant's prayer for this place.

Respond to the requests of your servant and your people Israel for this place. Hear from your heavenly dwelling place and respond favorably and forgive.

may You hear in heaven and act.
May You judge Your servants,
condemning the wicked man by bringing
what he has done on his own head
and providing justice for the righteous
by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy,
because they have sinned against You,
and they return to You and praise Your name,
and they pray and plead for mercy
before You in this temple,

may You hear in heaven
and forgive the sin of Your servants
and Your people Israel,
so that You may teach them the good way
they should walk in.
May You send rain on Your land
that You gave Your people for an inheritance.

When all your people Israel pray and ask for help, as they acknowledge their intense pain and spread out their hands toward this temple,

may You hear in heaven, Your dwelling place,
and may You forgive and repay the man
according to all his ways, since You know his heart,
for You alone know the human heart,

Even for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel
but has come from a distant land
because of Your great name
and Your mighty hand and outstretched arm:
when he comes and prays toward this temple,

may You hear in heaven in Your dwelling place,
and do all the foreigner asks You.
Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name,
to fear You as Your people Israel do
and know that this temple I have built
is called by Your name.

When Your people go out to fight against their enemies,
wherever You send them,
and they pray to You
in the direction of this city You have chosen
and the temple that I have built for Your name,

then listen from heaven to their prayers for help and vindicate them.

When they sin against You—
for there is no one who does not sin—
and You are angry with them
and hand them over to the enemy,
and their captors deport them
to a distant or nearby country,

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 when they return to You with their whole mind and heart
in the land of their captivity where they were taken captive,
and when they pray in the direction of their land
that You gave their ancestors,
and the city You have chosen,
and toward the temple I have built for Your name,

then listen from your heavenly dwelling place to their prayers for help, vindicate them, and forgive your sinful people.

O Jehovah God, thou wilt not turn away the face of thy Messiah: remember for the mercies of David thy servant

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

All the Israelites were watching when the fire descended and the glory of the Lord came on the temple. They bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground. They worshiped and praised the Lord:

For He is good,
for His faithful love endures forever.

The priests and the Levites were standing at their stations. The Levites had the musical instruments of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord—“for His faithful love endures forever”—when he offered praise with them. Across from the Levites, the priests were blowing trumpets, and all the people were standing.

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.

So Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly, from the entrance to Hamath to the Brook of Egypt—observed the festival at that time for seven days.

On the eighth day they held a sacred assembly, for the dedication of the altar lasted seven days and the festival seven days.

On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, rejoicing and with happy hearts for the goodness the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.

So Solomon finished the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. Everything that had entered Solomon’s heart to do for the Lord’s temple and for his own palace succeeded.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him:

I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple 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,

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.

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}.

As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,

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.'

then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for My name I will banish from My presence; I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

As for this temple, which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will say: Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?

And men shall say, Because they forsook Yahweh the God of their fathers, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods, and bowed down to them, and served them, for this cause, hath he brought upon them, all this calamity.

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.

Baalath and all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon; all the cities for chariots and cities for horses; and any desire of Solomon that he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

As for all the peoples who remained of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not from Israel—

Their descendants remained in the land (the Israelites were unable to wipe them out). Solomon conscripted them for his work crews and they continue in that role to this very day.

But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to be slaves for his work; they were soldiers, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry.

These men worked for Solomon as supervisors; there were a total of 250 of them who were in charge of the people.

Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh from the city of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the house of David king of Israel because the places the ark of the Lord has come into are holy.”

He followed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths.

According to the ordinances of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests over their service, of the Levites over their responsibilities to offer praise and to minister before the priests following the daily requirement, and of the gatekeepers by their divisions with respect to each gate, for this had been the command of David, the man of God.

And they departed not from the command of the king concerning the priests and the Levites for every word and for the treasures.

All of Solomon’s work was carried out from the day the foundation was laid for the Lord’s temple until it was finished. So the Lord’s temple was completed.

Hiram sent Solomon ships and servants who were expert mariners, and they sailed with Solomon's servants to Ophir, where they brought back 450 talents of gold for Solomon.

AND the queen Sheba heard the hearing of Solomon, and she will come to try Solomon with enigmas in Jerusalem, with very weighty power, and camels lifting up spices, and gold, for multitude, and precious stone: and she will come to Solomon and speak with him all which was with her heart.

So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for Solomon to explain to her.

When the queen of Sheba saw for herself Solomon's extensive wisdom, the palace he had built,

Yet, I believed not their words, until I came, and my eyes had seen it: and behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told to me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.

May the Lord your God be praised! He delighted in you and put you on His throne as king for the Lord your God. Because Your God loved Israel enough to establish them forever, He has set you over them as king to carry out justice and righteousness.”

And she will give to the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and spices for a multitude greatly, and precious stone: and there was not as that spice which queen Sheba gave to king Solomon.

The king made the algum wood into walkways for the Lord’s temple and for the king’s palace and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah.

In return, King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted and requested in addition to what she had brought for the king. Afterward, she returned to her own land, accompanied by her servants.

King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; 600 measures of hammered gold were used for each shield.

He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; 300 measures of gold were used for each of those shields. The king placed them in the Palace of the Lebanon Forest.

The throne had six steps; there was a footstool covered in gold for the throne, armrests on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests.

Twelve lions were placed on both sides of the six steps leading to the throne, and nothing comparable was made for any other kingdom.

All of King Solomon's cups were made of gold, and all the household items in the Palace of the Lebanon Forest were made of pure gold. There were no silver items, for silver was not considered very valuable in Solomon's time.

for the king’s ships kept going to Tarshish with Hiram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

And king Solomon becometh greater than any of the kings of the earth for riches and wisdom;

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 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. He stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

And the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as the sycamore trees that [are] in the Shephelah for abundance.

They were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all the countries.

As for the remainder of the words of Solomon [from] the first to the last, are they not written in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer, concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for 40 years.

Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it—for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence—Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

They sent for him and Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

He said to them, "Go away for three days, then return to me." So the people went away.

And they spoke to him saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever.

But Rehoboam ignored the counsel that his elder advisors had given him. Instead, he consulted the younger men who had grown up with him and worked for him.

Then the young men who had grown up with him said to him, "Thus you should say to this people who have said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, so you yourself should lighten [it] for us.' Thus you should say to them, 'My little finger [is] thicker than the loins of my father.

For whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you, I will put more to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

the king answered them cruelly: for king Rehoboam left the counsel of the aged men,

So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turning [of events] from God, so that Yahweh might fulfill his word that he had spoken by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

So all Israel [saw] that the king would not listen to them, and the people answered the king, saying, "What portion [is there] for us in David? [We have] no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Each to your tents, O Israel! Now look to your own house, David!" And all Israel went to their own tents.

But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem; and he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men apt for war, to fight against Israel, that he might bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam.

‘This is what the Lord says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers. Each of you must return home, for this incident has come from Me.’”

So they listened to what the Lord said and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defence in Judah.

for the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests of Yahweh.

Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the golden calves he had made.

So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.

And Rehoboam took to himself Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David for a wife, and Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse;

And she bore sons for him: Jeush, and Shemariah, and Zaham.

And after her he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom. And she bore for him Abijah, and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith.

And Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines (for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).

And Rehoboam established Abijah the son of Maachah at the head, to be ruler among his brethren; for he thought to make him king.