44“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 45then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause.
46“If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; 47yet if they come to their senses in the land to which they have been taken captive, and repent, and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done wrong; we have acted wickedly’ 48if they repent with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies, who took them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name; 49then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, maintain their cause 50and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you; and grant them compassion in the sight of their captors, so that they may have compassion on them 51(for they are your people and heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron-smelter). 52Let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant, and to the plea of your people Israel, listening to them whenever they call to you. 53For you have separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, just as you promised through Moses, your servant, when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.”
Solomon Blesses the Assembly
54Now when Solomon finished offering all this prayer and this plea to the LORD, he arose from facing the altar of the LORD, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven; 55he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice:
56“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 spoke through his servant Moses. 57The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he not leave us or abandon us, 58but incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors. 59Let these words of mine, with which I pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires; 60so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. 61Therefore devote yourselves completely to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”
Solomon Offers Sacrifices
62Then the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD. 63Solomon offered as sacrifices of well-being to the LORD twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD. 64The same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the LORD; for there he offered the burnt offerings and the grain offerings and the fat pieces of the sacrifices of well-being, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to receive the burnt offerings and the grain offerings and the fat pieces of the sacrifices of well-being.
65So Solomon held the festival at that time, and all Israel with him—a great assembly, people from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt—before the LORD our God, seven days.c 66On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents, joyful and in good spirits because of all the goodness that the LORD had shown to his servant David and to his people Israel.
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a Or when you answer
b Gk Syr: Heb in the land
c Compare Gk: Heb seven days and seven days, fourteen days
8.1–13 Solomon’s installation of the ark marks the religious climax of the new temple’s construction and signifies the beginning of God’s permanent residence in the building.
8.1–2 The heads of Israel’s traditional kinship groups or lineages join with all the people of Israel for the ceremony. The installation takes place in Ethanim, the seventh month of the old Canaanite calendar (September-October), so for unknown reasons Solomon delayed the event for almost a year after the completion of the temple itself (6.38). The festival associated with the gathering was probably Sukkoth (the Festival of Booths, or Tabernacles), a seven-day fall harvest festival, which in Deuteronomic tradition was the occasion for the ritual reading of the Mosaic law every seven years (Ex 23.16; 34.22; Deut 16.13–17; 31.9–13; cf. 1 Kings 8.65–66).
8.3–4 The priests and the Levites, the traditional custodians of the ark (Deut 31.9; 2 Sam 15.24), carried it from the tent in Zion, the older part of Jerusalem that David had occupied (2 Sam 6.1–23), and moved it north to the new temple.
8.6 Ark. See note on 6.19. Cherubim. See note on 6.23–28.
8.8 The ark’s carrying poles extended through the veil that blocked the inner sanctuary from public view (2 Chr 3.14) and reminded visitors to the nave of the ark’s presence. That the poles are there to this day indicates that the account was written sometime after the events being narrated but before the destruction of the temple.
8.10–11 Once the ark was in its proper place, the temple was filled with a cloud, a traditional symbol of God’s presence (Ex 13.21; 19.16), and with the glory of the LORD, the visible aura or radiance surrounding the deity (Ex 40.34–35; Ezek 1.1–28; 10.18–19; 11.22–23; 43.1–5).
8.12–13 Thick darkness, the dark cloud that conceals the deity.
8.14–21 Solomon’s speech to the assembled people refers to the fulfillment of God’s promise to David (2 Sam 7.1–17).
8.22–53 Solomon’s prayer of petition to the Lord is an archetypical statement of Deuteronomistic theology directed to the people and to readers as much as it is to the deity. After introductory references to God’s faithfulness to the covenant with David (vv. 22–30; 2 Sam 7.1–17), the king makes seven petitions (vv. 31–32, 33–34, 35–36, 37–40, 41–43, 44–45, 46–51), each of which asks God to hear the prayers of those who are righteous and truly repent of their sins. The last case deals with exile and captivity and holds out hope for the exilic audience reading the book.
8.54–61 A resumption of the narrative that frames Solomon’s lengthy prayer (cf. vv. 14–22). It consists chiefly of Deuteronomistic exhortation to covenant faithfulness.
8.54 Arose…where he had knelt contrasts with v. 22, where Solomon is said to have been praying while standing.
8.55 Blessed all the assembly of Israel. This normally priestly function (cf. Num 6.22–27) is here done by the king (as in v. 14).
8.56 Who has given rest, a fulfillment of the promise given in Deut 12.10–11.
8.62–66 Following common ancient Near Eastern practice, Israel’s kings sometimes carried out priestly duties, as Solomon does here (2 Sam 6; 1 Kings 13; 2 Kings 19.14–19), even though such priestly behavior is left out of Deuteronomy’s list of royal responsibilities (Deut 17.14–20).
8.65 Lebo-hamath (“Entrance of Hamath”), the traditional northern boundary of the land promised to Israel (Num 34.7–9; Josh 13.5; Ezek 47.15). Its exact location is uncertain, but it has been identified with modern Lebweh, to the south of the city of Hamath (modern Hama) on the Orontes River in Syria. Wadi of Egypt, or Wadi of the Arabah (Am 6.14), the traditional southern boundary, usually identified with the Wadi el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
1 KINGS 9
God Appears Again to Solomon
1When Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, 2the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you made before me; I have consecrated this house that you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 4As for you, if you
will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, 5then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.’
6“If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples. 8This house will become a heap of ruins;a everyone passing by it will be astonished, and will hiss; and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ 9Then they will say, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, worshiping them and serving them; therefore the LORD has brought this disaster upon them.’”
10At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house, 11King Hiram of Tyre having supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. 13Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabulb to this day. 14But Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.
Other Acts of Solomon
15This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the house of the LORD and his own house, the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer 16(Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it down, had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife; 17so Solomon rebuilt Gezer), Lower Beth-horon, 18Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness, within the land, 19as well as all of Solomon’s storage cities, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his cavalry, and whatever Solomon desired to build, in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel—21their descendants who were still left in the land, whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely—these Solomon conscripted for slave labor, and so they are to this day. 22But of the Israelites Solomon made no slaves; they were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, and the commanders of his chariotry and cavalry.
23These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred fifty, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.
24But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her; then he built the Millo.
25Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being on the altar that he built for the LORD, offering incensec before the LORD. So he completed the house.
Solomon’s Commercial Activity
26King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea,d in the land of Edom. 27Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, sailors who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. 28They went to Ophir, and imported from there four hundred twenty talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.
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a Syr Old Latin: Heb will become high
b Perhaps meaning a land good for nothing
c Gk: Heb offering incense with it that was
d Or Sea of Reeds
9.1–9 The location of Solomon’s second vision is not specified, but the divine revelation presumably comes in a dream, as it did at Gibeon (see notes on 3.1–15; 3.5). God’s address to Solomon is in good Deuteronomistic style and articulates the theological views that underlie the rest of Kings. The address thus provides a necessary framework for understanding both the narrative of the rest of Solomon’s reign (9.10–11.43) and the account of the history of Israel and Judah to the exile.
9.3 God’s initial statement concerning the sanctification of the temple verbalizes what readers have already seen in 8.10–11. The temple is now holy because God has caused the divine name to dwell there forever. The promise to keep the temple always in view is a positive answer to Solomon’s prayer (8.29, 52).
9.4–5 Addressing Solomon directly, God again makes the continuation of Davidic rule contingent on Solomon’s obedience to the commandments associated with the covenant (cf. 2.4).
9.6–9 In these verses the you of the address switches from singular to plural, and God warns Solomon’s descendants that they too must obey if the divine presence is to remain in the temple. If they do not obey the law, here summarized by the command to worship only the Lord (Deut 6.4), then king and people together will be punished (cf. 6.11–13). This threat is later recalled in the Deuteronomistic explanation for the destruction of the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 17.7–8) and ultimately becomes the explanation for the fall of Jerusalem and the exile (2 Kings 21.11–15).
9.10–14 Hiram had already been paid for the building materials (see 5.9–11), so Solomon probably sells the cities in order to replenish his depleted treasury.
9.11 Galilee is in northern Israel between the Jezreel Valley and the Leontes River. The upper part of the region lies just to the east of Tyre.
9.13 Cabul. Meaning uncertain.
9.14 Even though Hiram was displeased with the cities when he saw them, he had apparently already paid for them and was unable to cancel the sale. One hundred twenty talents of gold. A talent weighs about 75 pounds.
9.15–25 This account of Solomon’s other activities probably comes from official archives.
9.15 Millo, an artificial platform or terrace of earth constructed to provide a suitable building surface. Its exact location in Jerusalem is unknown.
9.20–22 In addition to the Israelites who were forced to provide labor for Solomon’s building activities (5.13–18), he also employed slave labor drawn from the pre-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan, the same people marked for extermination by Deuteronomy (Deut 7.1–6; 20.16–18). The claim that Solomon used Israelites only as overseers does not agree with 5.13–18 or 12.4.
9.26–28 Because Israel was not known for trading by sea, the fleet represents an attempt to expand Solomon’s economic base.
9.26 Ezion-geber is on the Gulf of Aqaba, so Solomon intends to use the Red Sea for access to ports in eastern Africa and southern Arabia.
9.28 Ophir, a renowned source for gold (Job 22.24; 28.16; Ps 45.9; Isa 13.12). Its exact location is uncertain. Talents. See note on 9.14.
1 KINGS 10
Visit of the Queen of Sheba
1When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon (fame due toa the name of the LORD), she came to test him with hard questions. 2She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. 3Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. 4When the queen of Sheba had observed all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 5the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his valets, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.
6So she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your accomplishments and of your wisdom, 7but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. Not even half had been told me; your wisdom and prosperity far surpass the report that I had heard. 8Happy are your wives!b Happy are these your servants, who continually attend you and hear your wi
sdom! 9Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel forever, he has made you king to execute justice and righteousness.” 10Then she gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones; never again did spices come in such quantity as that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
11Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a great quantity of almug wood and precious stones. 12From the almug wood the king made supports for the house of the LORD, and for the king’s house, lyres also and harps for the singers; no such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.
13Meanwhile King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba every desire that she expressed, as well as what he gave her out of Solomon’s royal bounty. Then she returned to her own land, with her servants.
14The weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold, 15besides that which came from the traders and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land. 16King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each large shield. 17He made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield; and the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. 18The king also made a great ivory throne, and overlaid it with the finest gold. 19The throne had six steps. The top of the throne was rounded in the back, and on each side of the seat were arm rests and two lions standing beside the arm rests, 20while twelve lions were standing, one on each end of a step on the six steps. Nothing like it was ever made in any kingdom. 21All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver—it was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. 22For 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 used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.c
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