Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.

King Solomon answered his mother, "Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah."

Then king Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, "God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life.

Now therefore as the LORD lives, who has established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death this day."

King Solomon sent by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell on him, so that he died.

To Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted."

The news came to Joab; for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he did not turn after Absalom. Joab fled to the Tent of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

It was told king Solomon, "Joab has fled to the Tent of the LORD, and behold, he is by the altar." Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go, fall on him."

Benaiah came to the Tent of the LORD, and said to him, "Thus says the king, 'Come forth.'" He said, "No; but I will die here." Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, "Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me."

The king said to him, "Do as he has said, and fall on him, and bury him; that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father's house.

The LORD will return his blood on his own head, because he fell on two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, and my father David did not know it: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah.

So shall their blood return on the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed forever. But to David, and to his seed, and to his house, and to his throne, there shall be peace forever from the LORD."

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

The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army; and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.

The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and do not go out from there anywhere.

For on the day you go out, and pass over the brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die: your blood shall be on your own head."

It happened at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, "Behold, your servants are in Gath."

Shimei arose, and saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish, to seek his servants; and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath.

It was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had come again.

The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, "Did I not adjure you by the LORD, and warn you, saying, 'Know for certain, that on the day you go out, and walk abroad any where, you shall surely die?' You said to me, 'The saying that I have heard is good.'

Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have instructed you with?"

But king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD forever."

So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out, and fell on him, so that he died. The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the City of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem all around.

Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I shall give you."

Solomon said, "You have shown to your servant David my father great loving kindness, according as he walked before you in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have kept for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this your great people?"

God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, neither have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice;

behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and an understanding heart; so that there has been none like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like you.

I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like you, all your days.

If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days."

Solomon awoke; and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him.

The one woman said, "Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house.

She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

The other woman said, "No; but the living is my son, and the dead is your son." This said, "No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son." Thus they spoke before the king.

Then the king said, "The one says, 'This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead;' and the other says, 'No; but your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'"

The king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other."

Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it." But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it."

Then the king answered, "Give her the living child, and in no way kill it. She is its mother."

All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder;

and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, the king's friend;

and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided food for the king and his household: each man had to make provision for a month in the year.

Ben Deker, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Beth Shemesh, and Elon Beth Hanan;

Ben Hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh, and all the land of Hepher);

Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth Shean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth Shean to Abel Meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam;

Ben Geber, in Ramoth Gilead (to him belonged the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; to him belonged the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars);

Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and he was the only officer who was in the land.

Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt: they brought tribute, and served Solomon all the days of his life.

Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of meal,

ten head of fat cattle, and twenty head of cattle out of the pastures, and one hundred sheep, besides harts, and gazelles, and roebucks, and fattened fowl.

For he had dominion over all on this side the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side the River: and he had peace on all sides around him.

Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

Those officers provided food for king Solomon, and for all who came to king Solomon's table, every man in his month; they let nothing be lacking.

Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds brought they to the place where the officers were, every man according to his duty.

God gave Solomon wisdom and exceptional insight, and very great understanding, even as the sand that is on the seashore.

Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all the nations all around.

He spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were one thousand five.

He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fish.

Now therefore command that they cut me cedar trees out of Lebanon. My servants shall be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you shall say. For you know that there is not among us any who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians."

It happened, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, "Blessed is the LORD this day, who has given to David a wise son over this great people."

Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, "I have heard the message which you have sent to me. I will do all your desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir.

My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you shall appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you shall receive them. You shall accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household."

So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to all his desire.

Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.

The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a treaty together.

King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.

He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to forced labor.

Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains;

besides Solomon's chief officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who bore rule over the people who labored in the work.

The king commanded, and they cut out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone.

Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

The house which king Solomon built for the LORD, its length was sixty cubits, and its breadth twenty, and its height thirty cubits.

Against the wall of the house he built stories all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the oracle; and he made side rooms all around.

The nethermost story was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around, that the beams should not have hold in the walls of the house.

The house, when it was in building, was built of stone prepared at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

The door for the middle side rooms was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the middle story, and out of the middle into the third.

So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

He built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

"Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.

I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel."

So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir.

There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.

And before the sanctuary was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in its height; and he overlaid it with pure gold: and he covered the altar with cedar.

So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.

Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing to the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.

The other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubim were of one measure and one form.

The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub.

He set the cherubim within the inner house; and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.