Thematic Bible
Thematic Bible
the Armies of israel » Before going to war » Were numbered and reviewed
David numbered the men who were with him and set over them commanders of thousands and of hundreds. David sent forth the army, a third under command of Joab, a third under Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. [He] told the men, I myself will go out with you also.
Then the king said to them, “I will do whatever seems best to you.” So the king stood beside the gate [of Mahanaim], and all the army went out in groups of hundreds and of thousands.
Verse Concepts
besides the taxes from the traders and from the wares of the merchants, and [the tribute money] from all the kings of the Arabs (Bedouins) and the governors of the country.
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The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland.
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Business life » Miscellaneous topics relating to » Trading
besides the taxes from the traders and from the wares of the merchants, and [the tribute money] from all the kings of the Arabs (Bedouins) and the governors of the country.
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He broke off the topmost of its young twigs (young King Jehoiachin) and carried it to a land of traders (Babylonia); he set it in a city of merchants (Babylon).
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“It is [almost] worthless, it is [almost] worthless,” says the buyer [as he negotiates the price];
But when he goes his way, then he boasts [about his bargain].
In this way you shall live with us; the country will be open to you; live and do business in it and acquire property and possessions in it.”
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Bring your youngest brother to me; then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. Then I will return your [imprisoned] brother [back] to you, and you may trade and do business in the land.’”
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“Tarshish [in Spain] was your customer and traded with you because of the abundance of your riches of all kinds; with silver, iron, tin, and lead they paid for your wares.
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Business life » Miscellaneous topics relating to » Merchants
besides the taxes from the traders and from the wares of the merchants, and [the tribute money] from all the kings of the Arabs (Bedouins) and the governors of the country.
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Then they sat down to eat their meal. When they looked up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead [east of the Jordan], with their camels bearing ladanum resin [for perfume] and balm and myrrh, going on their way to carry the cargo down to Egypt.
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“And merchants of the earth will weep and grieve over her, because no one buys their cargo (goods, merchandise) anymore—
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So once or twice the merchants and sellers of every kind of merchandise spent the night outside Jerusalem.
Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
Duty (tax) » Tribute (a tax) levied on foreign commerce by solomon
besides the taxes from the traders and from the wares of the merchants, and [the tribute money] from all the kings of the Arabs (Bedouins) and the governors of the country.
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The ishmaelites » Sent presents to solomon
besides what the traders and merchants brought; and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.
Verse Concepts
besides the taxes from the traders and from the wares of the merchants, and [the tribute money] from all the kings of the Arabs (Bedouins) and the governors of the country.
Verse Concepts
King » Tariff on imports, and internal revenue on merchandise
Besides what the traders brought and the traffic of the merchants and from all the [tributary] kings and governors of the land of Arabia. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. read more.
Also the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and attached at the rear of the top of the throne was a round covering or canopy. On either side of the seat were armrests, and two lions stood beside the armrests. Twelve lions stood there, one on either end of each of the six steps; there was nothing like it ever made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom (skill). And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his mind. Every man brought tribute: vessels of silver and gold, garments, equipment, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. Solomon collected chariots and horsemen; he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees in the lowlands. Solomon's horses were brought out of Egypt, and the king's merchants received them in droves, each at a price. A chariot could be brought out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150. And so to all the kings of the Hittites and of Syria they were exported by the king's merchants.
Also the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and attached at the rear of the top of the throne was a round covering or canopy. On either side of the seat were armrests, and two lions stood beside the armrests. Twelve lions stood there, one on either end of each of the six steps; there was nothing like it ever made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom (skill). And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his mind. Every man brought tribute: vessels of silver and gold, garments, equipment, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. Solomon collected chariots and horsemen; he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees in the lowlands. Solomon's horses were brought out of Egypt, and the king's merchants received them in droves, each at a price. A chariot could be brought out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150. And so to all the kings of the Hittites and of Syria they were exported by the king's merchants.
Kings » Who reigned over all israel » Solomon
Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tent and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet and all the people said, Long live King Solomon! All the people followed him; they played on pipes and rejoiced greatly, so that the earth [resounded] with the joyful sound. And Adonijah and all the guests with him heard it as they finished feasting. When Joab heard the trumpet sound, he said, What does this uproar in the city mean? read more.
While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest came. And Adonijah said, Come in, for you are a trustworthy man and bring good news. Jonathan replied, Adonijah, truly our lord King David has made Solomon king! The king has sent him with Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the king's mule. Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon; they have come up from there rejoicing, so the city resounds. This is the noise you heard. Solomon sits on the royal throne. Moreover, the king's servants came to congratulate our lord King David, saying, May God make the name of Solomon better than your name and make his throne greater than your throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed And said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who has granted me to see one of my offspring sitting on my throne this day. And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid and rose up and went every man his way. And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose and went [to the tabernacle tent on Mt. Zion] and caught hold of the horns of the altar [as a fugitive's refuge]. And it was told Solomon, Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon, for behold, he has caught hold of the horns of the altar, saying, Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not slay his servant with the sword. Solomon said, If he will show himself to be a worthy man, not a hair of him shall fall to the ground; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die. So King Solomon sent, and they brought Adonijah down from the altar [in front of the tabernacle]. He came and bowed himself to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, Go to your house. When David's time to die was near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man; Keep the charge of the Lord your God, walk in His ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His precepts, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may do wisely and prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, That the Lord may fulfill His promise to me, saying, If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and mind and with all their soul, there shall not fail you [to have] a man on the throne of Israel. You know also what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, whom he murdered, avenging in time of peace blood shed in war, and putting innocent blood of war on the girdle on his loins and on the sandals of his feet. Do therefore according to your wisdom, but let not his hoary head go down to Sheol (the place of the dead) in peace. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite and let them be among those who eat at your table; for with such kindness they met me when I fled because of Absalom your brother. And you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan [on my return], and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword. So do not hold him guiltless; for you are a wise man and know what you should do to him. His hoary head bring down to the grave with blood. So David slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. David reigned over Israel forty years -- "seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. Adonijah, the son of [David and] Haggith, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. She said, Do you come peaceably? And he said, Peaceably. He said, I have something to say to you. And she said, Say on. He said, You know that the kingdom belonged to me [as the eldest living son], and all Israel looked to me to reign. However, the kingdom has passed from me to my brother; for it was his from the Lord. Now I make one request of you; do not deny me. And she said, Say on. He said, I pray you, ask King Solomon, for he will not refuse you, to give me Abishag the Shunammite to be my wife. And Bathsheba said, Very well; I will speak for you to the king. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set at his right hand for her, the king's mother. Then she said, I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me. The king said to her, Ask on, my mother, for I will not refuse you. She said, Give Abishag the Shunammite to Adonijah your brother to be his wife. King Solomon answered his mother, And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also -- "for he is my elder brother -- "[ask it] even for him and for [his supporters] Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not requested this against his own life. 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, Adonijah shall be put to death this day. So King Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who attacked [Adonijah] and he died. And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Get to Anathoth to your own estate; for you deserve death, but I will not put you to death now, because you bore the ark of the Lord God before my father David and were afflicted in all my father endured. So Solomon expelled Abiathar [descendant of Eli] from being priest to the Lord, fulfilling the word of the Lord which He spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. When the news came to Joab, for Joab had followed Adonijah though he had not followed Absalom, [he] fled to the tent (tabernacle) of the Lord and caught hold of the horns of the altar [before it]. King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was at the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, strike him down. So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and told Joab, The king commands, Come forth. But Joab said, No, I will die here. Then Benaiah brought the king word again, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. The king said to him, Do as he has said. Strike him down and bury him, that you may take away from [me and from] my father's house the innocent blood which Joab shed. The Lord shall return his bloody deeds upon his own head, for he fell upon two men more [uncompromisingly] righteous and honorable than he and slew them with the sword, without my father knowing of it: Abner son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah. So shall their blood return upon the head of Joab and of his descendants forever. But upon David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, there shall be peace from the Lord forever. So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck and killed Joab, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness. The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada in Joab's place over the army and put Zadok the priest in place of Abiathar. The king sent for Shimei and said to him, Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not leave there. For on the day you go out and pass over the brook Kidron, know with certainty that you shall die; your blood shall be upon your own head. And Shimei said to the king, The saying is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days. But after three years, two of Shimei's servants ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. And Shimei was told, Behold, your [runaway] servants are in Gath. So Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to King Achish to seek his servants, and brought them from Gath. It was told Solomon that Shimei went from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned. And the king sent for Shimei and said to him, Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warn you, saying, Know with certainty, on the day you go out and walk abroad anywhere, you shall surely die? And you said to me, I have heard your word. It is accepted. Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the command with which I have charged 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 will return your evil upon your own head. But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. So the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who went out and struck down Shimei, and he died. And the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon. And Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the City of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem. But the people sacrificed [to God] in the high places [as the heathen did to their idols], for there was no house yet built to the Name of the Lord. Solomon loved the Lord, walking [at first] in the statutes and practices of David his father, only he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. The king went to Gibeon [near Jerusalem, where stood the tabernacle and the bronze altar] to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. One thousand burnt offerings Solomon offered 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 mercy and loving-kindness, according as he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart with You; and You have kept for him this great kindness and steadfast love, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of David my father, and I am but a lad [in wisdom and experience]; I know not how to go out (begin) or come in (finish). Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who cannot be counted for multitude. So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people? It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, Because you have asked this and have not asked for long life or for riches, nor for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to recognize what is just and right, Behold, I have done as you asked. I have given you a wise, discerning mind, so that no one before you was your equal, nor shall any arise after you equal to you. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings equal to you all your days. And if you will go My way, keep My statutes and My commandments as your father David did, then I will lengthen your days. Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. He came to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. Then two women who had become mothers out of wedlock came and stood before the king. And one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And the third day after I was delivered, this woman also was delivered. And we were together; no stranger was with us, just we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night because she lay on him. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your handmaid slept and laid him in her bosom and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I had considered him in the morning, behold, it was not the son I had borne. But the other woman said, No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son! And this one said, No! But the dead son is your son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king. The king said, One says, This is my son that is alive and yours is the dead one. The other woman says, No! But your son is the dead one and mine is the living one. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword to the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other. Then the mother of the living child said to the king, for she yearned over her son, O my lord, give her the living baby, and by no means slay him. But the other said, Let him not be mine or yours, but divide him. Then the king said, Give her [who pleads for his life] the living baby, and by no means slay him. She is the child's mother. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had made, and they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. King Solomon was king over all Israel. These were his chief officials: Azariah son of Zadok was the [high] priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, were secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; Benaiah son of Jehoiada commanded the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; Azariah son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud son of Nathan was priest and the king's friend and private advisor; Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor. Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who secured provisions for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in a year. These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan; Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher); Ben-abinadab, in Naphoth-dor (he had Taphath, Solomon's daughter, as wife); Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as beyond Jokmeam; Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (to him belonged the villages of Jair son of Manasseh which are in Gilead, also the region of Argob which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath, Solomon's daughter, as his wife); Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar; Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin; Geber son of Uri, in Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; only one officer was over all the country [at one time, each serving for one month]. Judah and Israel were many, like the sand which is by the sea in multitude; they ate, drank, and rejoiced. Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the [Euphrates] 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, sixty measures of meal, Ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl of choice kinds. For he had dominion over all the region west of the [Euphrates] River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River, and he had peace on all sides around him. Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all of Solomon's days. Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. And those officers provided food for King Solomon and for all who came to his table, every man in his month; they let nothing be lacking. Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was needed, each according to his assignment. And God gave Solomon exceptionally much wisdom and understanding, and breadth of mind like the sand of the seashore. Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men -- "than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame was in all the nations round about. He also originated 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that he was anointed king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, You know how David my father could not build a house to the Name of the Lord his God because wars were about him on every side, until the Lord put his foes under his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil confronting me. And I purpose to build a house to the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David my father, Your son whom I will set on your throne in your place shall build the house to My Name and Presence. So, Hiram, command them to hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; my servants shall join yours, and I will give you whatever wages you set for your servants. For you know that no one among us can equal the skill of the Sidon men in cutting timber. When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, Who has given David a wise son to be over this great people. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things for which you sent to me; I will do all you wish concerning the cedar and cypress timber. My servants shall bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea, make them into rafts, and float them by sea to the place that you direct. I will have them released there, and you shall take them away. And you shall fulfill my desire by providing food for my household. So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and cypress trees he desired, And Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 measures of wheat for food for his household, and 20 measures of pure, beaten oil. He gave these to Hiram yearly. The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty. King Solomon raised a levy [of forced labor] out of all Israel; and the levy was 30,000 men. He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month by divisions; one month they were in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had 70,000 burden bearers and 80,000 hewers [of stone] in the hill country of Judah, Besides Solomon's 3,300 overseers in charge of the people doing the work. The king commanded, and they hewed and brought out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stone. Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gebal did the hewing and prepared the timber and stones to build the house. And 480 years after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the second month, Ziv, he began to build the Lord's house. The length of the house Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits, its breadth twenty, and its height thirty cubits. The length of the vestibule in front of the temple was twenty cubits, equal to the width of the house, and its depth in front of the house was ten cubits. For the house he made narrow [latticed] windows. Against the wall of the house he built chambers running round the walls of the house both of the Holy Place and of the Holy of Holies; and he made side chambers all around. The first story's side chambers were five cubits wide, those of the middle story six cubits wide, and of the third story seven cubits wide; for around the outside of the wall of the house he made offsets in order that the supporting beams should not be thrust into the walls of the house. When the house was being built, its stone was made ready at the quarry, and no hammer, ax, or tool of iron was heard in the house while it was in building. The entrance to the lowest side chamber was on the right [or south] side of the house; and one went up winding stairs into the middle chamber and from the middle into the third. So Solomon built the temple building and finished it, and roofed the house with beams and boards of cedar. Then he built the stories of chambers [the lean-to] against all the house, each [story] five cubits high; and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar. Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes, execute My precepts, and keep all My commandments to walk in them, then I will fulfill to you My promises which I made to David your father. And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not forsake My people Israel. So Solomon built the house and finished it. He built the walls of the house (the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies) within with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the rafters of the ceiling. He covered the inside with wood, and the floor of the house with boards of cypress. He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the rafters; he built it within for the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. The [rest of the] house, that is, the temple in front of the Holy of Holies, was forty cubits long. The cedar on the house within was carved with gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was visible. And he prepared the Holy of Holies in the inner room in which to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The Holy of Holies was twenty cubits in length, in breadth, and in height. He overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the cedar altar. Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across in front of the Holy of Holies and overlaid it with gold. And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole [incense] altar that [stood outside the door but] belonged to the Holy of Holies he overlaid with gold. Within the Holy of Holies he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub and five cubits its other wing; from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits. The wings of the other cherub were also ten cubits. Both cherubim were the same, The height of one cherub ten cubits, as was the other. He put the cherubim within the inner sanctuary. Their wings were stretched out, so that the wing of one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, and their inner wings touched in the midst of the room. Solomon overlaid the cherubim with gold. He carved all the walls of the house (these two holy rooms) round about with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, within and without. The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and out. For the Holy of Holies he made [folding] doors of olive wood; their entire width was one-fifth that of the wall. On the two doors of olive wood he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; he overlaid them with gold, and spread gold on the cherubim and palm trees. Also he made for the door of the Holy Place four-sided posts of olive wood. The two doors were of cypress wood; the two leaves of each door were folding. He carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, covered with gold evenly applied on the carved work. He built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams. In the fourth year the foundation of the Lord's house was laid, in the [second] month, Ziv. In the eleventh year, in Bul, the eighth month, the house was finished throughout according to all its specifications. So he was seven years in building it. Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all of it. He built also the Forest of Lebanon House; its length was a hundred cubits, its breadth fifty, and its height thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. And it was covered with cedar above the side chambers that were upon the forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row. There were window frames in three rows, and window opposite window in three tiers. All the doorways and windows were square cut, and window was opposite window in three tiers. He also made the Hall of Pillars; its length was fifty cubits and its breadth thirty cubits. There was a porch in front, and pillars and a cornice before them. He made the porch for the throne where he was to judge, the Porch of Judgment; it was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling. His house where he was to dwell had another court behind the Porch of Judgment of similar work. Solomon also made a house like this porch for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had married. All were of costly stones hewn according to measure, sawed with saws back and front, even from foundation to coping, and from the outside to the great court. The foundation was of costly stones, even great stones of eight and ten cubits. And above were costly stones hewn according to measure, and cedar timbers. Also the great encircling court had three courses of hewn stone and a course of cedar beams, like was around the inner court of the house of the Lord and the porch of the house. King Solomon brought Hiram from Tyre. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. He was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill to do any kind of work in bronze. So he came to King Solomon and did all his [bronze] work. He fashioned the two pillars of bronze, each eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits measured its circumference. He made two capitals of molten bronze to set upon the tops of the pillars; the height of each capital was five cubits. Nets of checkerwork and wreaths of chainwork for the capitals were on the tops of the pillars, seven for each capital. So Hiram made the pillars. There were two rows of pomegranates encircling each network to cover the capitals that were upon the top. The capitals that were upon the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work [design], four cubits. The capitals were upon the two pillars and also above the rounded projection beside the network. There were 200 pomegranates in two rows round about, and so with the other capital. Hiram set up the pillars of the porch of the temple; he set up the right pillar and called its name Jachin [he will establish], and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz [in strength]. On the tops of the pillars was lily work [design]. So the work of the pillars was finished. He made a round molten Sea, ten cubits from brim to brim, five cubits high and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim were gourds encircling the Sea, ten to a cubit; the gourds were in two rows, cast in one piece with it. It stood upon twelve oxen, three facing north, three west, three south, and three east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their rears pointed inward. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held 2,000 baths [Hebrew liquid measurement]. Hiram made ten bronze bases [for the lavers]; their length and breadth were four cubits, and the height three cubits. This is the way the bases were made: they had panels between the ledges. On the panels between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim; and upon the ledges there was a pedestal above. Beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. And every base had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze, and at the four corners were supports for a laver. Beneath the laver the supports were cast, with wreaths at the side of each. Its mouth within the capital projected upward a cubit, and its mouth was round like the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half. Also upon its mouth were carvings, and their borders were square, not round. Under the borders were four wheels, and the axles of the wheels were one piece with the base. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. The wheels were made like a chariot wheel: their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast. There were four supports to the four corners of each base; the supports were part of the base itself. On the top of the base there was a circular elevation half a cubit high, and on the top of the base its stays and panels were of one piece with it. And on the surface of its stays and its panels Hiram carved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths round about. Thus he made the ten bases. They all had one casting, one measure, and one form. Then he made ten lavers of bronze; each laver held forty baths and measured four cubits, and there was one laver on each of the ten bases. He put the bases five on the south side of the house and five on the north side; and he set the Sea at the southeast corner of the house. Hiram made the lavers, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of the Lord: The two pillars; and the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the two pillars; and the two networks to cover the two bowls; And the 400 pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the pillars; The ten bases and the ten lavers on the bases; One Sea, and the twelve oxen under it; The pots, the shovels, and the basins. All these vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the Lord were of burnished bronze. In the Jordan plain the king cast them, in clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were so many; the weight of the bronze was not found out. Solomon made all the other vessels of the Lord's house: the [incense] altar of gold; the table of gold for the showbread; The lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the Holy of Holies; with the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold; The cups, snuffers, basins, spoons, firepans -- "of pure gold; and the hinges of gold for the doors of the innermost room, the Holy of Holies, and for the doors of the Holy Place. So all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the Lord was completed. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated -- "the silver, the gold, and the vessels -- "and put them in the treasuries of the Lord's house. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers' houses of the Israelites, before the king in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Zion, the City of David. All the men of Israel assembled themselves before King Solomon at the feast in the seventh month, Ethanim. All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. And they brought up the ark of the Lord, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had assembled before him were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, so many that they could not be reported or counted. And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place in the Holy of Holies of the house, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles. The poles were so long that the ends of them were seen from the Holy Place before the Holy of Holies, but they were not seen outside; they are there to this day. There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt. When the priests had come out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Lord's house, So the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. Then Solomon said, The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built You a house of habitation, a settled place for You to dwell in forever. And the king turned his face about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, and all the assembly of Israel stood. He said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who spoke with His mouth to David my father and has with His hand fulfilled it, saying, Since the day that I brought forth My people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My Name [and My Presence] might be in it, but I chose David to be over My people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the Name [the Presence] of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Lord said to David my father, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you did well that it was in your heart. Yet you shall not build the house, but your son, who shall be born to you, shall build it to My Name [and My actively present Person]. And the Lord has fulfilled His promise which He made: I have risen up in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built a house for the Name (renown) of the Lord, the God of Israel. And I have made there a place for the ark [the token of His presence], in which is the covenant [the Ten Commandments] of the Lord which He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. Then Solomon stood [in the court] before the Lord's burnt offering altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven And he said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing mercy and loving-kindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father. You also spoke with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. Therefore now, O Lord, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father what You promised him when You said, There shall not fail you a man before Me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have done. Now, O God of Israel, let Your word which You spoke to Your servant David my father be confirmed [by experience]. But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, the heavens and heaven of heavens [in its most extended compass] cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built? Yet graciously consider the prayer and supplication of Your servant, O Lord my God, to hearken to the [loud] cry and prayer which he prays before You today, That Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, My Name [and the token of My presence] shall be there, that You may hearken to the prayer which Your servant shall make in [or facing toward] this place. Hearken to the prayer of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray in or toward this place. Hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive. Whenever a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears the oath before Your altar in this house, Then hear in heaven and do and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked by bringing his guilt upon his own head and justifying the [uncompromisingly] righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness (his uprightness, right standing with God). When Your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against You, and they turn again to You, confess Your name (Your revelation of Yourself), and pray, beseeching You in this house, Then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel and return them to the land You gave to their fathers. When heaven is shut up and no rain falls because they have sinned against You, if they pray in [or toward] this place and confess Your name (Your revelation of Yourself) and turn from their sin when You afflict them, Then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, when You teach them the good way in which they should walk. And give rain upon Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance. If there is famine in the land or pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, Whatever prayer or supplication is made by any or all of Your people Israel -- "each man knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading forth his hands toward this house [and its pledge of Your presence] -- " Then hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart You know, for You and You only know the hearts of all the children of men, That they may fear and revere You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers. Moreover, concerning a stranger who is not of Your people Israel but comes from a far country for the sake of Your name [and Your active Presence] -- " For they will hear of Your great name (Your revelation of Yourself), Your strong hand, and outstretched arm -- "when he shall pray in [or toward] this house, Hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger asks of You, so that all peoples of the earth may know Your name [and Your revelation of Your presence] and fear and revere You, as do Your people Israel, and may know and comprehend that this house which I have built is called by Your Name [and contains the token of Your presence]. If Your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever You shall send them, and shall pray to the Lord toward the city which You have chosen and the house that I have built for Your Name [and Your revelation of Yourself], Then hear in heaven their prayer and supplication, and defend their cause and maintain their right. If they sin against You -- "for there is no man who does not sin -- "and You are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the enemy's land, far or near; Yet if they think and consider in the land where they were carried captive, and repent and make supplication to You there, saying, We have sinned and have done perversely and wickedly; If they repent and turn to You with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your Name; Then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, Your dwelling place, and defend their cause and maintain their right. And forgive Your people, who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions against You, and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have pity and be merciful to them; For they are Your people and Your heritage, which You brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace. Let Your eyes be open to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, to hearken to them in all for which they call to You. For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your heritage, as You declared through Moses Your servant when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. When Solomon finished offering all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, he arose from before the Lord's altar, where he had knelt with hands stretched toward heaven. And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord, Who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. Not one word has failed of all His good promise which He promised through Moses His servant. May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us, That He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His precepts which He commanded our fathers. Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause and right of His servant and of His people Israel as each day requires, That all the earth's people may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. Let your hearts therefore be blameless and wholly true to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as today. And the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the Lord. Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord: 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of the Lord. On that same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the Lord's house; there he offered burnt offerings, cereal offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive [all] the offerings. So at that time Solomon held the feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, for seven days [for the dedication] and seven days [for the Feast of Tabernacles], fourteen days in all. On the eighth day he sent the people away; they blessed the king and went to their tents with greatest joy and gratitude for all the goodness the Lord had shown to David His servant and Israel His people. When Solomon finished the building of the Lord's house and the king's house, and all he desired and was pleased to do, The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. The Lord told him, I have heard your prayer and supplication which you have made before Me; I have hallowed this house which you have built, and I have put My Name [and My Presence] there forever. My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. And if you will walk before Me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, keeping My statutes and My precepts, Then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, There shall not fail you [to have] a man upon the throne of Israel. But if you turn away from following Me, you or your children, and will not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you but go and serve other gods and worship them, Then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them, and this house I have hallowed for My Name (renown) I will cast from My sight. And Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all the peoples. This house shall become a heap of ruins; every passerby shall be astonished and shall hiss [with surprise] and say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? Then they will answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, Who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have laid hold of other gods and have worshiped and served them; therefore the Lord has brought on them all this evil. At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord's house and the king's house, For which Hiram king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with as much cedar and cypress timber and gold as he desired, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. And Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they did not please him. He said, What are these cities worth which you have given me, my brother? So they are called the Cabul [unproductive] Land to this day. And Hiram sent to the king 120 talents of gold. This is the account of the levy [of forced labor] which King Solomon raised to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer, burned it with fire, slew the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife. So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and Lower Beth-horon, Baalath and Tamar (Tadmor) in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, And all the store cities which Solomon had and cities for his chariots and cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites, Their children who were left after them in the land, whom the Israelites were not able utterly to destroy, of them Solomon made a forced levy of slaves to this day. But Solomon made no slaves of the Israelites; they were the soldiers, his officials, attendants, commanders, captains, chariot officers, and horsemen. These were the chief officers over Solomon's work, 550 who had charge of the people who did the work. But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the City of David to her house which Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo. Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he built to the Lord, and he burned incense with them before the Lord. So he finished the house. And King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in Edom. And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. They came to Ophir and got 420 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon. When the queen of Sheba heard of [the constant connection of] the fame of Solomon with the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions (problems and riddles). She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels bearing spices, very much gold, and precious stones. When she had come to Solomon, she communed with him about all that was in her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king which he failed to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and skill, the house he had built, The food of his table, the seating of his officials, the standing at attention of his servants, their apparel, his cupbearers, his ascent by which he went up to the house of the Lord [or the burnt offerings he sacrificed], she was breathless and overcome. She said to the king, It was a true report I heard in my own land of your acts and sayings and wisdom. I did not believe it until I came and my eyes had seen. Behold, the half was not told me. You have added wisdom and goodness exceeding the fame I heard. Happy are your men! Happy are these your servants who stand continually before you, hearing your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, Who delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, He made you king to execute justice and righteousness. And she gave the king 120 talents of gold and of spices a very great store and precious stones. Never again came such abundance of spices as these the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. The navy also of Hiram brought from Ophir gold and a great plenty of almug (algum) wood and precious stones. Of the almug wood the king made pillars for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, and lyres also and harps for the singers. No such almug wood came again or has been seen to this day. King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she wanted, whatever she asked, besides his gifts to her from his royal bounty. So she returned to her own country, she and her servants. Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one [particular] year was 666 talents of gold, Besides what the traders brought and the traffic of the merchants and from all the [tributary] kings and governors of the land of Arabia. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Also the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and attached at the rear of the top of the throne was a round covering or canopy. On either side of the seat were armrests, and two lions stood beside the armrests. Twelve lions stood there, one on either end of each of the six steps; there was nothing like it ever made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom (skill). And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his mind. Every man brought tribute: vessels of silver and gold, garments, equipment, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. Solomon collected chariots and horsemen; he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees in the lowlands. Solomon's horses were brought out of Egypt, and the king's merchants received them in droves, each at a price. A chariot could be brought out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150. And so to all the kings of the Hittites and of Syria they were exported by the king's merchants. But King Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women -- "the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. They were of the very nations of whom the Lord said to the Israelites, You shall not mingle with them, neither shall they mingle with you, for surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Yet Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart from God. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect (complete and whole) with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abominable idol of the Ammonites! Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as David his father did. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abominable idol of Moab, on the hill opposite Jerusalem, and for Molech the abominable idol of the Ammonites. And he did so for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord, the God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice, And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not do what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you are doing this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely rend the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant! However, in your days I will not do it, for David your father's sake. But I will rend it out of the hand of your son! However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to your son for David My servant's sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. The Lord stirred up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of royal descent in Edom. For when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of Israel's army went up to bury the slain, he slew every male in Edom. For Joab and all Israel remained there for six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom. But Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father's servants, to Egypt, Hadad being yet a little child. They set out from Midian and came to Paran, and took men with them out of Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave [young] Hadad a house and land and ordered provisions for him. Hadad found great favor with Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife Tahpenes the queen. The sister of Tahpenes bore Hadad Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house; and Genubath was in Pharaoh's household among the sons of Pharaoh. But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab the commander of Israel's army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to my own country. Then Pharaoh said to him, But what have you lacked with me that now you want to go to your own country? He replied, Nothing. However, let me go anyhow. God raised up for [Hadad] another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. Rezon gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding band after the slaughter by David. They went to Damascus and dwelt and made [Rezon] king in Damascus. And Rezon was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, besides the mischief that Hadad did. Rezon abhorred Israel and reigned over Syria. Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow woman, rebelled against the king -- " And for this reason: Solomon built the Millo and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father. The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of courage. Solomon, seeing that the young man was industrious, put him in charge over all the [forced] labor of the house of Joseph. At that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way. Ahijah had clad himself with a new garment; and they were alone in the field. Ahijah caught the new garment he wore and tore it into twelve pieces. He said to Jeroboam, You take ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes. But he shall have one tribe, for My servant David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, Because they have forsaken Me and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in My ways, to do what is right in My sight, keeping My statutes and My ordinances as did David his father. However, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for David My servant's sake, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and give it to you, ten tribes. Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David My servant may always have a light before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My Name. And I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires; and you shall be king over Israel. And if you will hearken to all I command you and will walk in My ways and do right in My sight, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did, I will be with you and build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you. And I will for this afflict the descendants of David, but not forever. Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until Solomon died. The rest of the acts of Solomon -- "and all that he did, and his wisdom (skill) -- "are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? The time Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest came. And Adonijah said, Come in, for you are a trustworthy man and bring good news. Jonathan replied, Adonijah, truly our lord King David has made Solomon king! The king has sent him with Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the king's mule. Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon; they have come up from there rejoicing, so the city resounds. This is the noise you heard. Solomon sits on the royal throne. Moreover, the king's servants came to congratulate our lord King David, saying, May God make the name of Solomon better than your name and make his throne greater than your throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed And said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who has granted me to see one of my offspring sitting on my throne this day. And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid and rose up and went every man his way. And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose and went [to the tabernacle tent on Mt. Zion] and caught hold of the horns of the altar [as a fugitive's refuge]. And it was told Solomon, Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon, for behold, he has caught hold of the horns of the altar, saying, Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not slay his servant with the sword. Solomon said, If he will show himself to be a worthy man, not a hair of him shall fall to the ground; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die. So King Solomon sent, and they brought Adonijah down from the altar [in front of the tabernacle]. He came and bowed himself to King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, Go to your house. When David's time to die was near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man; Keep the charge of the Lord your God, walk in His ways, keep His statutes, His commandments, His precepts, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may do wisely and prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, That the Lord may fulfill His promise to me, saying, If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and mind and with all their soul, there shall not fail you [to have] a man on the throne of Israel. You know also what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, whom he murdered, avenging in time of peace blood shed in war, and putting innocent blood of war on the girdle on his loins and on the sandals of his feet. Do therefore according to your wisdom, but let not his hoary head go down to Sheol (the place of the dead) in peace. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite and let them be among those who eat at your table; for with such kindness they met me when I fled because of Absalom your brother. And you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan [on my return], and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword. So do not hold him guiltless; for you are a wise man and know what you should do to him. His hoary head bring down to the grave with blood. So David slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. David reigned over Israel forty years -- "seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. Adonijah, the son of [David and] Haggith, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. She said, Do you come peaceably? And he said, Peaceably. He said, I have something to say to you. And she said, Say on. He said, You know that the kingdom belonged to me [as the eldest living son], and all Israel looked to me to reign. However, the kingdom has passed from me to my brother; for it was his from the Lord. Now I make one request of you; do not deny me. And she said, Say on. He said, I pray you, ask King Solomon, for he will not refuse you, to give me Abishag the Shunammite to be my wife. And Bathsheba said, Very well; I will speak for you to the king. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set at his right hand for her, the king's mother. Then she said, I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me. The king said to her, Ask on, my mother, for I will not refuse you. She said, Give Abishag the Shunammite to Adonijah your brother to be his wife. King Solomon answered his mother, And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also -- "for he is my elder brother -- "[ask it] even for him and for [his supporters] Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not requested this against his own life. 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, Adonijah shall be put to death this day. So King Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who attacked [Adonijah] and he died. And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Get to Anathoth to your own estate; for you deserve death, but I will not put you to death now, because you bore the ark of the Lord God before my father David and were afflicted in all my father endured. So Solomon expelled Abiathar [descendant of Eli] from being priest to the Lord, fulfilling the word of the Lord which He spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. When the news came to Joab, for Joab had followed Adonijah though he had not followed Absalom, [he] fled to the tent (tabernacle) of the Lord and caught hold of the horns of the altar [before it]. King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was at the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, strike him down. So Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and told Joab, The king commands, Come forth. But Joab said, No, I will die here. Then Benaiah brought the king word again, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. The king said to him, Do as he has said. Strike him down and bury him, that you may take away from [me and from] my father's house the innocent blood which Joab shed. The Lord shall return his bloody deeds upon his own head, for he fell upon two men more [uncompromisingly] righteous and honorable than he and slew them with the sword, without my father knowing of it: Abner son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah. So shall their blood return upon the head of Joab and of his descendants forever. But upon David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, there shall be peace from the Lord forever. So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck and killed Joab, and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness. The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada in Joab's place over the army and put Zadok the priest in place of Abiathar. The king sent for Shimei and said to him, Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not leave there. For on the day you go out and pass over the brook Kidron, know with certainty that you shall die; your blood shall be upon your own head. And Shimei said to the king, The saying is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days. But after three years, two of Shimei's servants ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. And Shimei was told, Behold, your [runaway] servants are in Gath. So Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to King Achish to seek his servants, and brought them from Gath. It was told Solomon that Shimei went from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned. And the king sent for Shimei and said to him, Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warn you, saying, Know with certainty, on the day you go out and walk abroad anywhere, you shall surely die? And you said to me, I have heard your word. It is accepted. Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the command with which I have charged 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 will return your evil upon your own head. But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. So the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who went out and struck down Shimei, and he died. And the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon. And Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the City of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem. But the people sacrificed [to God] in the high places [as the heathen did to their idols], for there was no house yet built to the Name of the Lord. Solomon loved the Lord, walking [at first] in the statutes and practices of David his father, only he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. The king went to Gibeon [near Jerusalem, where stood the tabernacle and the bronze altar] to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. One thousand burnt offerings Solomon offered 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 mercy and loving-kindness, according as he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart with You; and You have kept for him this great kindness and steadfast love, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of David my father, and I am but a lad [in wisdom and experience]; I know not how to go out (begin) or come in (finish). Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who cannot be counted for multitude. So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people? It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, Because you have asked this and have not asked for long life or for riches, nor for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to recognize what is just and right, Behold, I have done as you asked. I have given you a wise, discerning mind, so that no one before you was your equal, nor shall any arise after you equal to you. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings equal to you all your days. And if you will go My way, keep My statutes and My commandments as your father David did, then I will lengthen your days. Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. He came to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. Then two women who had become mothers out of wedlock came and stood before the king. And one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And the third day after I was delivered, this woman also was delivered. And we were together; no stranger was with us, just we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night because she lay on him. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your handmaid slept and laid him in her bosom and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I had considered him in the morning, behold, it was not the son I had borne. But the other woman said, No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son! And this one said, No! But the dead son is your son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king. The king said, One says, This is my son that is alive and yours is the dead one. The other woman says, No! But your son is the dead one and mine is the living one. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword to the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two and give half to the one and half to the other. Then the mother of the living child said to the king, for she yearned over her son, O my lord, give her the living baby, and by no means slay him. But the other said, Let him not be mine or yours, but divide him. Then the king said, Give her [who pleads for his life] the living baby, and by no means slay him. She is the child's mother. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had made, and they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. King Solomon was king over all Israel. These were his chief officials: Azariah son of Zadok was the [high] priest; Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, were secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; Benaiah son of Jehoiada commanded the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; Azariah son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud son of Nathan was priest and the king's friend and private advisor; Ahishar was in charge of the palace; and Adoniram son of Abda was in charge of the forced labor. Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who secured provisions for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in a year. These were their names: Ben-hur, in the hill country of Ephraim; Ben-deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan; Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him belonged Socoh and all the land of Hepher); Ben-abinadab, in Naphoth-dor (he had Taphath, Solomon's daughter, as wife); Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach, Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah as far as beyond Jokmeam; Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (to him belonged the villages of Jair son of Manasseh which are in Gilead, also the region of Argob which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bronze bars); Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath, Solomon's daughter, as his wife); Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth; Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar; Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin; Geber son of Uri, in Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; only one officer was over all the country [at one time, each serving for one month]. Judah and Israel were many, like the sand which is by the sea in multitude; they ate, drank, and rejoiced. Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the [Euphrates] 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, sixty measures of meal, Ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides harts, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl of choice kinds. For he had dominion over all the region west of the [Euphrates] River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River, and he had peace on all sides around him. Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all of Solomon's days. Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. And those officers provided food for King Solomon and for all who came to his table, every man in his month; they let nothing be lacking. Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was needed, each according to his assignment. And God gave Solomon exceptionally much wisdom and understanding, and breadth of mind like the sand of the seashore. Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men -- "than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame was in all the nations round about. He also originated 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, when he heard that he was anointed king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, You know how David my father could not build a house to the Name of the Lord his God because wars were about him on every side, until the Lord put his foes under his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil confronting me. And I purpose to build a house to the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David my father, Your son whom I will set on your throne in your place shall build the house to My Name and Presence. So, Hiram, command them to hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; my servants shall join yours, and I will give you whatever wages you set for your servants. For you know that no one among us can equal the skill of the Sidon men in cutting timber. When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, Who has given David a wise son to be over this great people. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things for which you sent to me; I will do all you wish concerning the cedar and cypress timber. My servants shall bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea, make them into rafts, and float them by sea to the place that you direct. I will have them released there, and you shall take them away. And you shall fulfill my desire by providing food for my household. So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar and cypress trees he desired, And Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 measures of wheat for food for his household, and 20 measures of pure, beaten oil. He gave these to Hiram yearly. The Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as He promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made a treaty. King Solomon raised a levy [of forced labor] out of all Israel; and the levy was 30,000 men. He sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month by divisions; one month they were in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had 70,000 burden bearers and 80,000 hewers [of stone] in the hill country of Judah, Besides Solomon's 3,300 overseers in charge of the people doing the work. The king commanded, and they hewed and brought out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stone. Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gebal did the hewing and prepared the timber and stones to build the house. And 480 years after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the second month, Ziv, he began to build the Lord's house. The length of the house Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits, its breadth twenty, and its height thirty cubits. The length of the vestibule in front of the temple was twenty cubits, equal to the width of the house, and its depth in front of the house was ten cubits. For the house he made narrow [latticed] windows. Against the wall of the house he built chambers running round the walls of the house both of the Holy Place and of the Holy of Holies; and he made side chambers all around. The first story's side chambers were five cubits wide, those of the middle story six cubits wide, and of the third story seven cubits wide; for around the outside of the wall of the house he made offsets in order that the supporting beams should not be thrust into the walls of the house. When the house was being built, its stone was made ready at the quarry, and no hammer, ax, or tool of iron was heard in the house while it was in building. The entrance to the lowest side chamber was on the right [or south] side of the house; and one went up winding stairs into the middle chamber and from the middle into the third. So Solomon built the temple building and finished it, and roofed the house with beams and boards of cedar. Then he built the stories of chambers [the lean-to] against all the house, each [story] five cubits high; and it was joined to the house with timbers of cedar. Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in My statutes, execute My precepts, and keep all My commandments to walk in them, then I will fulfill to you My promises which I made to David your father. And I will dwell among the Israelites and will not forsake My people Israel. So Solomon built the house and finished it. He built the walls of the house (the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies) within with boards of cedar, from the floor of the house to the rafters of the ceiling. He covered the inside with wood, and the floor of the house with boards of cypress. He built twenty cubits of the rear of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the rafters; he built it within for the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. The [rest of the] house, that is, the temple in front of the Holy of Holies, was forty cubits long. The cedar on the house within was carved with gourds and open flowers. All was cedar; no stone was visible. And he prepared the Holy of Holies in the inner room in which to set the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The Holy of Holies was twenty cubits in length, in breadth, and in height. He overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid the cedar altar. Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold, and he drew chains of gold across in front of the Holy of Holies and overlaid it with gold. And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished. Also the whole [incense] altar that [stood outside the door but] belonged to the Holy of Holies he overlaid with gold. Within the Holy of Holies he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high. Five cubits was the length of one wing of the cherub and five cubits its other wing; from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits. The wings of the other cherub were also ten cubits. Both cherubim were the same, The height of one cherub ten cubits, as was the other. He put the cherubim within the inner sanctuary. Their wings were stretched out, so that the wing of one touched one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall, and their inner wings touched in the midst of the room. Solomon overlaid the cherubim with gold. He carved all the walls of the house (these two holy rooms) round about with figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, within and without. The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and out. For the Holy of Holies he made [folding] doors of olive wood; their entire width was one-fifth that of the wall. On the two doors of olive wood he carved cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; he overlaid them with gold, and spread gold on the cherubim and palm trees. Also he made for the door of the Holy Place four-sided posts of olive wood. The two doors were of cypress wood; the two leaves of each door were folding. He carved on them cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, covered with gold evenly applied on the carved work. He built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone and a row of cedar beams. In the fourth year the foundation of the Lord's house was laid, in the [second] month, Ziv. In the eleventh year, in Bul, the eighth month, the house was finished throughout according to all its specifications. So he was seven years in building it. Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all of it. He built also the Forest of Lebanon House; its length was a hundred cubits, its breadth fifty, and its height thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. And it was covered with cedar above the side chambers that were upon the forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row. There were window frames in three rows, and window opposite window in three tiers. All the doorways and windows were square cut, and window was opposite window in three tiers. He also made the Hall of Pillars; its length was fifty cubits and its breadth thirty cubits. There was a porch in front, and pillars and a cornice before them. He made the porch for the throne where he was to judge, the Porch of Judgment; it was covered with cedar from floor to ceiling. His house where he was to dwell had another court behind the Porch of Judgment of similar work. Solomon also made a house like this porch for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had married. All were of costly stones hewn according to measure, sawed with saws back and front, even from foundation to coping, and from the outside to the great court. The foundation was of costly stones, even great stones of eight and ten cubits. And above were costly stones hewn according to measure, and cedar timbers. Also the great encircling court had three courses of hewn stone and a course of cedar beams, like was around the inner court of the house of the Lord and the porch of the house. King Solomon brought Hiram from Tyre. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze. He was full of wisdom, understanding, and skill to do any kind of work in bronze. So he came to King Solomon and did all his [bronze] work. He fashioned the two pillars of bronze, each eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits measured its circumference. He made two capitals of molten bronze to set upon the tops of the pillars; the height of each capital was five cubits. Nets of checkerwork and wreaths of chainwork for the capitals were on the tops of the pillars, seven for each capital. So Hiram made the pillars. There were two rows of pomegranates encircling each network to cover the capitals that were upon the top. The capitals that were upon the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work [design], four cubits. The capitals were upon the two pillars and also above the rounded projection beside the network. There were 200 pomegranates in two rows round about, and so with the other capital. Hiram set up the pillars of the porch of the temple; he set up the right pillar and called its name Jachin [he will establish], and he set up the left pillar and called its name Boaz [in strength]. On the tops of the pillars was lily work [design]. So the work of the pillars was finished. He made a round molten Sea, ten cubits from brim to brim, five cubits high and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim were gourds encircling the Sea, ten to a cubit; the gourds were in two rows, cast in one piece with it. It stood upon twelve oxen, three facing north, three west, three south, and three east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their rears pointed inward. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held 2,000 baths [Hebrew liquid measurement]. Hiram made ten bronze bases [for the lavers]; their length and breadth were four cubits, and the height three cubits. This is the way the bases were made: they had panels between the ledges. On the panels between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim; and upon the ledges there was a pedestal above. Beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. And every base had four bronze wheels and axles of bronze, and at the four corners were supports for a laver. Beneath the laver the supports were cast, with wreaths at the side of each. Its mouth within the capital projected upward a cubit, and its mouth was round like the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half. Also upon its mouth were carvings, and their borders were square, not round. Under the borders were four wheels, and the axles of the wheels were one piece with the base. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. The wheels were made like a chariot wheel: their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast. There were four supports to the four corners of each base; the supports were part of the base itself. On the top of the base there was a circular elevation half a cubit high, and on the top of the base its stays and panels were of one piece with it. And on the surface of its stays and its panels Hiram carved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths round about. Thus he made the ten bases. They all had one casting, one measure, and one form. Then he made ten lavers of bronze; each laver held forty baths and measured four cubits, and there was one laver on each of the ten bases. He put the bases five on the south side of the house and five on the north side; and he set the Sea at the southeast corner of the house. Hiram made the lavers, the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the house of the Lord: The two pillars; and the two bowls of the capitals that were on the tops of the two pillars; and the two networks to cover the two bowls; And the 400 pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the pillars; The ten bases and the ten lavers on the bases; One Sea, and the twelve oxen under it; The pots, the shovels, and the basins. All these vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the Lord were of burnished bronze. In the Jordan plain the king cast them, in clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were so many; the weight of the bronze was not found out. Solomon made all the other vessels of the Lord's house: the [incense] altar of gold; the table of gold for the showbread; The lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the Holy of Holies; with the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs of gold; The cups, snuffers, basins, spoons, firepans -- "of pure gold; and the hinges of gold for the doors of the innermost room, the Holy of Holies, and for the doors of the Holy Place. So all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the Lord was completed. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated -- "the silver, the gold, and the vessels -- "and put them in the treasuries of the Lord's house. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers' houses of the Israelites, before the king in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Zion, the City of David. All the men of Israel assembled themselves before King Solomon at the feast in the seventh month, Ethanim. All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. And they brought up the ark of the Lord, the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had assembled before him were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, so many that they could not be reported or counted. And the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place in the Holy of Holies of the house, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles. The poles were so long that the ends of them were seen from the Holy Place before the Holy of Holies, but they were not seen outside; they are there to this day. There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt. When the priests had come out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Lord's house, So the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. Then Solomon said, The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built You a house of habitation, a settled place for You to dwell in forever. And the king turned his face about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, and all the assembly of Israel stood. He said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who spoke with His mouth to David my father and has with His hand fulfilled it, saying, Since the day that I brought forth My people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house that My Name [and My Presence] might be in it, but I chose David to be over My people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the Name [the Presence] of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Lord said to David my father, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you did well that it was in your heart. Yet you shall not build the house, but your son, who shall be born to you, shall build it to My Name [and My actively present Person]. And the Lord has fulfilled His promise which He made: I have risen up in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built a house for the Name (renown) of the Lord, the God of Israel. And I have made there a place for the ark [the token of His presence], in which is the covenant [the Ten Commandments] of the Lord which He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. Then Solomon stood [in the court] before the Lord's burnt offering altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven And he said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing mercy and loving-kindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father. You also spoke with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. Therefore now, O Lord, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father what You promised him when You said, There shall not fail you a man before Me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have done. Now, O God of Israel, let Your word which You spoke to Your servant David my father be confirmed [by experience]. But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, the heavens and heaven of heavens [in its most extended compass] cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built? Yet graciously consider the prayer and supplication of Your servant, O Lord my God, to hearken to the [loud] cry and prayer which he prays before You today, That Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, My Name [and the token of My presence] shall be there, that You may hearken to the prayer which Your servant shall make in [or facing toward] this place. Hearken to the prayer of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray in or toward this place. Hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive. Whenever a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath and comes and swears the oath before Your altar in this house, Then hear in heaven and do and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked by bringing his guilt upon his own head and justifying the [uncompromisingly] righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness (his uprightness, right standing with God). When Your people Israel are struck down before the enemy because they have sinned against You, and they turn again to You, confess Your name (Your revelation of Yourself), and pray, beseeching You in this house, Then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel and return them to the land You gave to their fathers. When heaven is shut up and no rain falls because they have sinned against You, if they pray in [or toward] this place and confess Your name (Your revelation of Yourself) and turn from their sin when You afflict them, Then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, when You teach them the good way in which they should walk. And give rain upon Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance. If there is famine in the land or pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, Whatever prayer or supplication is made by any or all of Your people Israel -- "each man knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading forth his hands toward this house [and its pledge of Your presence] -- " Then hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart You know, for You and You only know the hearts of all the children of men, That they may fear and revere You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers. Moreover, concerning a stranger who is not of Your people Israel but comes from a far country for the sake of Your name [and Your active Presence] -- " For they will hear of Your great name (Your revelation of Yourself), Your strong hand, and outstretched arm -- "when he shall pray in [or toward] this house, Hear in heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger asks of You, so that all peoples of the earth may know Your name [and Your revelation of Your presence] and fear and revere You, as do Your people Israel, and may know and comprehend that this house which I have built is called by Your Name [and contains the token of Your presence]. If Your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever You shall send them, and shall pray to the Lord toward the city which You have chosen and the house that I have built for Your Name [and Your revelation of Yourself], Then hear in heaven their prayer and supplication, and defend their cause and maintain their right. If they sin against You -- "for there is no man who does not sin -- "and You are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the enemy's land, far or near; Yet if they think and consider in the land where they were carried captive, and repent and make supplication to You there, saying, We have sinned and have done perversely and wickedly; If they repent and turn to You with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies who took them captive, and pray to You toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for Your Name; Then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, Your dwelling place, and defend their cause and maintain their right. And forgive Your people, who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions against You, and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have pity and be merciful to them; For they are Your people and Your heritage, which You brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace. Let Your eyes be open to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, to hearken to them in all for which they call to You. For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your heritage, as You declared through Moses Your servant when You brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. When Solomon finished offering all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, he arose from before the Lord's altar, where he had knelt with hands stretched toward heaven. And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord, Who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. Not one word has failed of all His good promise which He promised through Moses His servant. May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us, That He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His precepts which He commanded our fathers. Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause and right of His servant and of His people Israel as each day requires, That all the earth's people may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. Let your hearts therefore be blameless and wholly true to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as today. And the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before the Lord. Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord: 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of the Lord. On that same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was before the Lord's house; there he offered burnt offerings, cereal offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small to receive [all] the offerings. So at that time Solomon held the feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God, for seven days [for the dedication] and seven days [for the Feast of Tabernacles], fourteen days in all. On the eighth day he sent the people away; they blessed the king and went to their tents with greatest joy and gratitude for all the goodness the Lord had shown to David His servant and Israel His people. When Solomon finished the building of the Lord's house and the king's house, and all he desired and was pleased to do, The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. The Lord told him, I have heard your prayer and supplication which you have made before Me; I have hallowed this house which you have built, and I have put My Name [and My Presence] there forever. My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. And if you will walk before Me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, keeping My statutes and My precepts, Then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, There shall not fail you [to have] a man upon the throne of Israel. But if you turn away from following Me, you or your children, and will not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you but go and serve other gods and worship them, Then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them, and this house I have hallowed for My Name (renown) I will cast from My sight. And Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all the peoples. This house shall become a heap of ruins; every passerby shall be astonished and shall hiss [with surprise] and say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? Then they will answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, Who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have laid hold of other gods and have worshiped and served them; therefore the Lord has brought on them all this evil. At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the Lord's house and the king's house, For which Hiram king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with as much cedar and cypress timber and gold as he desired, King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. And Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they did not please him. He said, What are these cities worth which you have given me, my brother? So they are called the Cabul [unproductive] Land to this day. And Hiram sent to the king 120 talents of gold. This is the account of the levy [of forced labor] which King Solomon raised to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer, burned it with fire, slew the Canaanites who dwelt in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife. So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and Lower Beth-horon, Baalath and Tamar (Tadmor) in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, And all the store cities which Solomon had and cities for his chariots and cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites, Their children who were left after them in the land, whom the Israelites were not able utterly to destroy, of them Solomon made a forced levy of slaves to this day. But Solomon made no slaves of the Israelites; they were the soldiers, his officials, attendants, commanders, captains, chariot officers, and horsemen. These were the chief officers over Solomon's work, 550 who had charge of the people who did the work. But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the City of David to her house which Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo. Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he built to the Lord, and he burned incense with them before the Lord. So he finished the house. And King Solomon made a fleet of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in Edom. And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, shipmen who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. They came to Ophir and got 420 talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon. When the queen of Sheba heard of [the constant connection of] the fame of Solomon with the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions (problems and riddles). She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels bearing spices, very much gold, and precious stones. When she had come to Solomon, she communed with him about all that was in her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king which he failed to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and skill, the house he had built, The food of his table, the seating of his officials, the standing at attention of his servants, their apparel, his cupbearers, his ascent by which he went up to the house of the Lord [or the burnt offerings he sacrificed], she was breathless and overcome. She said to the king, It was a true report I heard in my own land of your acts and sayings and wisdom. I did not believe it until I came and my eyes had seen. Behold, the half was not told me. You have added wisdom and goodness exceeding the fame I heard. Happy are your men! Happy are these your servants who stand continually before you, hearing your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, Who delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, He made you king to execute justice and righteousness. And she gave the king 120 talents of gold and of spices a very great store and precious stones. Never again came such abundance of spices as these the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. The navy also of Hiram brought from Ophir gold and a great plenty of almug (algum) wood and precious stones. Of the almug wood the king made pillars for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, and lyres also and harps for the singers. No such almug wood came again or has been seen to this day. King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she wanted, whatever she asked, besides his gifts to her from his royal bounty. So she returned to her own country, she and her servants. Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one [particular] year was 666 talents of gold, Besides what the traders brought and the traffic of the merchants and from all the [tributary] kings and governors of the land of Arabia. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Also the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps, and attached at the rear of the top of the throne was a round covering or canopy. On either side of the seat were armrests, and two lions stood beside the armrests. Twelve lions stood there, one on either end of each of the six steps; there was nothing like it ever made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; it was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom (skill). And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his mind. Every man brought tribute: vessels of silver and gold, garments, equipment, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year. Solomon collected chariots and horsemen; he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees in the lowlands. Solomon's horses were brought out of Egypt, and the king's merchants received them in droves, each at a price. A chariot could be brought out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150. And so to all the kings of the Hittites and of Syria they were exported by the king's merchants. But King Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women -- "the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. They were of the very nations of whom the Lord said to the Israelites, You shall not mingle with them, neither shall they mingle with you, for surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Yet Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart from God. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect (complete and whole) with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abominable idol of the Ammonites! Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as David his father did. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abominable idol of Moab, on the hill opposite Jerusalem, and for Molech the abominable idol of the Ammonites. And he did so for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord, the God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice, And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not do what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you are doing this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely rend the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant! However, in your days I will not do it, for David your father's sake. But I will rend it out of the hand of your son! However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to your son for David My servant's sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. The Lord stirred up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of royal descent in Edom. For when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of Israel's army went up to bury the slain, he slew every male in Edom. For Joab and all Israel remained there for six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom. But Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father's servants, to Egypt, Hadad being yet a little child. They set out from Midian and came to Paran, and took men with them out of Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave [young] Hadad a house and land and ordered provisions for him. Hadad found great favor with Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife Tahpenes the queen. The sister of Tahpenes bore Hadad Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house; and Genubath was in Pharaoh's household among the sons of Pharaoh. But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab the commander of Israel's army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to my own country. Then Pharaoh said to him, But what have you lacked with me that now you want to go to your own country? He replied, Nothing. However, let me go anyhow. God raised up for [Hadad] another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. Rezon gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding band after the slaughter by David. They went to Damascus and dwelt and made [Rezon] king in Damascus. And Rezon was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, besides the mischief that Hadad did. Rezon abhorred Israel and reigned over Syria. Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow woman, rebelled against the king -- " And for this reason: Solomon built the Millo and repaired the breaches of the city of David his father. The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of courage. Solomon, seeing that the young man was industrious, put him in charge over all the [forced] labor of the house of Joseph. At that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way. Ahijah had clad himself with a new garment; and they were alone in the field. Ahijah caught the new garment he wore and tore it into twelve pieces. He said to Jeroboam, You take ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes. But he shall have one tribe, for My servant David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, Because they have forsaken Me and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in My ways, to do what is right in My sight, keeping My statutes and My ordinances as did David his father. However, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for David My servant's sake, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and give it to you, ten tribes. Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David My servant may always have a light before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My Name. And I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires; and you shall be king over Israel. And if you will hearken to all I command you and will walk in My ways and do right in My sight, keeping My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did, I will be with you and build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you. And I will for this afflict the descendants of David, but not forever. Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until Solomon died. The rest of the acts of Solomon -- "and all that he did, and his wisdom (skill) -- "are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? The time Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
Kings » Their revenues derived from » Tax on foreign merchandise
besides the taxes from the traders and from the wares of the merchants, and [the tribute money] from all the kings of the Arabs (Bedouins) and the governors of the country.
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Solomon » Wealth of
The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland.
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The king made silver and gold as plentiful and common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore-fig trees in the lowland.
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I spoke with my heart, saying, “Behold, I have acquired great [human] wisdom and experience, more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of [moral] wisdom and [scientific] knowledge.”
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She gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again did such an abundance of spices come in [to Israel] as that which the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.
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Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, a very large amount of spices (balsam oil) and precious stones; there was no such spice [anywhere] like that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
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Each man brought his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.
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When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with riddles. She was accompanied by a very large number of attendants, with camels bearing spices (balsam oil) and a large amount of gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she talked with him about all that was on her mind.
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So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom.
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The king made silver in Jerusalem as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as the sycamore-fig trees that are in the lowland.
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Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one [particular] year was 666 talents of gold, Besides what the traders brought and the traffic of the merchants and from all the [tributary] kings and governors of the land of Arabia.
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Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents,
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