And Jehovah shall requite the blood which he shed upon his own head, because he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, without my father David's knowledge: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.

So shall their blood return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but unto David, and unto his seed, and unto his house, and unto his throne, shall there be peace for ever from Jehovah.

So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

The king appointed Benaiah the son of Jehoiada over the army in Joab’s place, and appointed Zadok the priest in place of Abiathar.

And the king sent, and called for Shimei, and said to him - Build thee a house, in Jerusalem, so shalt thou dwell there, - and shalt not go forth from thence, hither or thither;

And Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.

And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two servants of Shimei's ran away to Achish son of Maachah, king of Gath. And they told Shimei saying, Behold, thy servants are in Gath.

So Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to [King] Achish to look for his servants. And Shimei went and brought them back from Gath.

So the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Didn’t I make you swear by the Lord and warn you, saying, ‘On the day you leave and go anywhere else, know for sure that you will certainly die’? And you said to me, ‘The sentence is fair; I will obey.’

So why have you not kept the Lord’s oath and the command that I gave you?”

The king also said to Shimei, “You are aware in your own heart of all the evil you did to my father David; so the Lord shall return your evil on your own head.

but King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will remain established before the Lord forever.”

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

And 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 round about.

However, the people were sacrificing on the high places, because until that time a temple for the Lord’s name had not been built.

So the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice, for the great high place [was] there. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

In Gibeon, Solomon had a vision of the Lord in a dream by night; and God said to him, Say what I am to give you.

So Solomon said:

So then, O Yahweh, you are my God. You have made your servant king in place of David my father [though] I [am] a young boy. I do not know going out or coming in.

And your servant has round him the people of your selection, a people so great that they may not be numbered, and no account of them may be given.

Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing to the Lord.

So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to understand justice,

Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.

Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He went to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he held a feast for all his servants.

And the one woman will say, With leave, my lord, I and this woman are dwelling in one house; and I shall bring forth with her in the house.

And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it.

So she got up in the middle of the night, and she took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep, and she put him in her lap, and she put her dead son in my lap.

And when I got up to give my child the breast, I saw that it was dead; but in the morning, looking at it with care, I saw that it was not my son.

Then the other woman said, "No, for my son [is] the living one, and your son [is] the dead one." The other kept on saying, "No, for your son [is] the dead one, and my son [is] the living one," and so they argued in front of the king.

Then the king said, One says, The living child is my son, and yours is the dead: and the other says, Not so; but your son is the dead one and mine is the living.

So the king said, "Bring me a sword," and they brought the sword before the king.

And the king will say, Divide the living child in two, and ye shall give the half to the one, and the half to the other.

Then the woman whose son [was] the living one spoke to the king because her compassion was aroused for her son, and she said, "Please, my lord, give her the living child, but certainly do not kill him!" The other one [was] saying, "As for me, so for you! Divide [him]!"

Then the king said, “Give the first woman [who is pleading for his life] the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.”

And 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 judgment.

So king Solomon was king over all Israel.

Here's a list of his officials: Zadok's son Azariah was priest,

Shisha's sons Elihoreph and Ahijah were his secretaries, Ahilud's son Jehoshaphat was recorder,

Jehoiada's son Benaiah commanded the army, Zadok and Abiathar served as priests,

And Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers: and Zabud the son of Nathan was principal officer, and the king's friend:

Ahishar was controller of the king's house; Adoniram, the son of Abda, was overseer of the forced work.

Solomon also appointed twelve governors over all of Israel, each of whom were responsible for providing one month's food provisions to the king and to his administration during each year.

Here's a list of their names: Ben-hur from the hill country of Ephraim;

Ben-abinadab, in all the hills of Dor (Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, was his wife);

Ahilud's son Baana served Taanach, Megiddo, and all of Beth-shean near Zarethan below Jezreel, including from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as the other side of Jokmeam;

Ben-geber in Ramoth-gilead, including the towns that belonged to Manasseh's descendant Jair that are in Gilead;

Iddo's son Ahinadab served in Mahanaim;

Ahimaaz, in [the tribe of] Naphtali (he also married Basemath, Solomon’s daughter);

Hushai's son Baana served in Asher and Bealoth;

Paruah's son Jehoshaphat served in Issachar;

Ela's son Shimei served in Benjamin;

and Uri's son Geber served in the territory of Gilead, the territory formerly ruled by King Sihon of the Amorites and King Og of Bashan (he was the only governor over that territory).

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

Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms paid tribute as Solomon's subjects throughout his lifetime.

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

His royal court was so large because he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River from Tiphsah to Gaza; he was at peace with all his neighbors.

Judah and Israel lived in security, every man under his vine and fig tree [in peace and prosperity], from Dan [in the north] to Beersheba [in the south], during all the days of Solomon.

And those officers provided victual for king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon's table, every man in his month: they lacked nothing.

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

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

so that he was wiser than any man - than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Calcol and Darda, sons of Mahol, - and it came to pass that, his name, was throughout all the nations round about.

People came from everywhere, sent by every king on earth who had heard of his wisdom, to listen to Solomon’s wisdom.

Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in his father’s place, for Hiram had always been friends with David.

So Solomon sent unto Hiram, saying: -

'Thou hast known David my father, that he hath not been able to build a house to the name of Jehovah his God, because of the wars that have been round about him, till Jehovah's putting them under the soles of his feet.

But now the LORD my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent.

So I plan to build a temple for the name of Yahweh my God, according to what the Lord promised my father David: ‘I will put your son on your throne in your place, and he will build the temple for My name.’

Now therefore command thou that they cut me cedar-trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants; and I will give thee hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt say: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that knoweth how to cut timber like unto the Sidonians.

And it cometh to pass at Hiram's hearing the words of Solomon, that he rejoiceth exceedingly, and saith, 'Blessed is Jehovah to-day, who hath given to David a wise son over this numerous people.'

So Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message which you have sent me; I will do what you desire concerning the cedar and cypress timber.

My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.

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

And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand quarters of wheat to feed his household withal, and twenty butts of pure oil. And so much gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.

So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. And Hiram and Solomon were at peace and made a treaty.

which he sent to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by course, so that they were one month in Lebanon and two months at home. And Adoniram was over the tribute.

Beside the chief of Solomon's officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work.

By the king's orders great stones, stones of high price, were cut out, so that the base of the house might be made of squared stone.

And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the house.

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

The portico in front of the temple sanctuary was 30 feet long extending across the temple’s width, and 15 feet deep in front of the temple.

He built an extension all around the walls of the temple's main hall and holy place and constructed side rooms in it.

The lowest story was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made offsets (niches) in the walls all around on the outside of the house so that the supporting beams would not be inserted into the walls of the house.

And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

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

and built the gallery against all the house, five cubits in height, - and so fastened the house, with timber of cedar.

Concerning this house, which thou art building, If thou wilt walk in my statutes, and, my regulations, wilt practise, and so observe all my commandments, by walking in them, Then will I establish my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father;

So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

And the first house, that is to say, the body of the temple, was forty cubits long.

Cedar carvings in the form of gourds and blooming flowers covered the entire interior of the Temple so that no stone could be seen.

He prepared the inner sanctuary inside the temple to put the ark of the Lord’s covenant there.

And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.

So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he made a partition by the chains of gold before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.

So he added the gold overlay to the entire temple until everything was completely finished, including the entire altar that belongs to the inner sanctuary.

Each wing of one cherub was five cubits long, and each wing of the other cherub was five cubits long, so that the distance from the end of one wing to the end of the other wing was ten cubits.

And the other Cherub was ten cubits high also: so that both the Cherubs were of one measure and one size.

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

And he set the cherubims within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, 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.

So he made two doors of olive-wood; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold upon the cherubim, and upon the palm-trees.