1 Kings 9 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~959 BC onward, after twenty years of building, in the second half of Solomon's reign
Location
Jerusalem, along with fortified cities at Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer, and the Red Sea port of Ezion Geber near modern Eilat
Audience
Judean readers in exile who knew the temple had in fact been destroyed
Situation
God appears to Solomon a second time, promising to establish his throne but warning plainly that if Israel turns to other gods this temple will become a ruin that passersby mock. The chapter then records Solomon's dealings with Hiram, his building program, his labor policy, and his shipping ventures.
Key Background
Solomon's handover of twenty Galilean towns to Hiram, who found them disappointing, shows that the building program had run past what Israel could pay for in grain and oil, an early sign of financial strain. The fortified cities named here sit at the choke points of the main north south trade road, and excavation at all three has uncovered large gate complexes from roughly this period. Ezion Geber gave Israel a port on the Red Sea, opening trade toward Arabia and East Africa, and required Phoenician sailors because Israelites had no deepwater seafaring tradition of their own.
When Solomon had finished building the and everything else he had wanted to build,
Yahweh to Solomon a second time — just as he had to him at
Yahweh told him: "I have heard your prayer and your plea that you brought before me. I have this you built my own, putting my there permanently. My and my will be there every single day."
"As for you — if you me the way your father David walked, with an and what is following everything I have commanded you and keeping my rules and my decisions,"
"then I will over Israel permanently, just as I promised father David when I said, 'You will never lack a man on the of Israel.'"
"But if you or your descendants from me and do not keep my commands and my rules that I set in front of you, and instead go and other and down to them — "
"then I will from the land I gave them, and this house that I my own for my I will throw out of my sight. will become a and a among all the peoples."
"And this house — impressive as it is — everyone passing by it will and They will ask, 'Why did Yahweh do this to this land and to this house?'"
"And people will answer, 'Because they Yahweh their God, who their out of the of and they on to other gods and bowed down to them and served them — that is why Yahweh all this disaster on them.'"
At the end of the during which Solomon had built the two buildings — Yahweh's house and the royal palace —
— Hiram of had supplied Solomon with and gold, as much as he wanted — so Solomon gave twenty cities in the
But when Hiram came from Tyre to inspect the cities Solomon had given him, he was not
He said, "What kind of cities are these you've given me, my And he named them the land of — and that name has stuck to this day.
Now Hiram had sent the king and of
Here is the account of the that King Solomon conscripted to build Yahweh's house, his own palace, the the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of and
of had attacked and captured Gezer, burned it down, and killed the Canaanites living in the city. Then he gave it as a to his daughter — Solomon's wife.
So Solomon rebuilt Gezer, along with
and in the — within the land —
all of Solomon's the for his the for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon wanted to build — in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and throughout his entire kingdom.
As for all the people remaining from the and — who were not Israelites —
their descendants who remained in the land after them — the ones the Israelites had not been able to — Solomon conscripted them for and they remain so to this day.
But Solomon did not of any Israelites. Instead, they served as his soldiers, his officials, his his captains, and the officers over his chariots and horsemen.
These were the over Solomon's projects: five hundred and fifty of them overseeing the people doing the work.
As soon as moved up from the of to the house Solomon had built for her, he built the Millo.
a Solomon offered and on the altar he had built for Yahweh, and he before Yahweh. So he the
King Solomon also built a of at which is near Elath on the shore of the in the land of Edom.
Hiram sent his own men with the fleet — experienced who the — to serve alongside Solomon's men.
They sailed to and brought back and of which they delivered to King Solomon.