1 Kings 9

1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to perform,

After Solomon’s [workers] had finished building the temple and his palace and everything else that Solomon wanted them to build,

2 That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

Yahweh appeared to him [in a dream] a second time, like he had appeared to him at [the city of] Gibeon.

3 And the LORD said to him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

Yahweh said to him, “I heard what you prayed and what you pleaded for me to do. I have set apart/dedicated this temple which your [workers] have built to be the place where people will worship me forever. I will always watch over it and protect it.

4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, [and] wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:

“And as for you, if you conduct your life as I want you to, like your father David did, and if you very sincerely obey all the statutes and laws that I have commanded you to obey,

5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

I will do what I promised your father that I would do: I promised him that Israel would always be ruled by his descendants.

6 [But] if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye 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:

“But if you or your descendants turn away from me and disobey the commands and decrees that I have given to you, and if you start to worship other gods,

7 Then will I cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a by-word among all people:

I will remove my Israeli people from the land that I have given to them. I will also abandon this temple that I have set apart/dedicated to be the place where people should worship me. Then people everywhere will despise [the people of] Israel and make fun of them.

8 And at this house [which] is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus to this land, and to this house?

This temple will become a heap of ruins. Everyone who passes by will be astonished [when they see it], and they will be shocked and say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this temple?’

9 And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers from the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshiped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.

And other people will reply, ‘It happened because the Israeli people abandoned Yahweh their God, the one who brought their ancestors out of Egypt. They started to accept and worship other gods. And that is why Yahweh has caused them to experience all these disasters.’”

10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king's house,

Solomon’s [workers] labored for 20 years to build the temple and the palace.

11 ([Now] Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire, ) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

Hiram, the king of Tyre had [arranged for his workers to] give Solomon all the cedar and pine [logs] and all the gold that he needed [for this work]. After it was all finished, King Solomon gave to Hiram 20 cities in the Galilee region.

12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.

But when Hiram went from Tyre [to Galilee] to see the cities that Solomon had given to him, he was not pleased with them.

13 And he said, What cities [are] these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul to this day.

He said to Solomon, “My friend, those cities that you gave me are worthless!” So, that area is still called ‘Worthless’.

14 And Hiram sent to the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

Hiram paid Solomon only five tons of gold [for those cities].

15 And this [is] the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised, to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

This is a record of the work that King Solomon forced men to do. He forced them to build the temple and his palace and the terraces/landfills [on the east side of the city], and the wall around Jerusalem, and [to rebuild the cities of] Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.

16 [For] Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it [for] a present to his daughter, Solomon's wife.

[The reason they needed to rebuild Gezer was that the army of] the king of Egypt had attacked Gezer and captured it. Then they had burned [the houses in] the city and killed all the people of the Canaan people-group who lived there. The king of Egypt gave that city to his daughter as a gift when she married Solomon.

17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether,

So Solomon’s workers also rebuilt Gezer, and they also rebuilt Lower Beth-Horon [city].

18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,

They also rebuilt Baalath and Tamar [towns] in the desert in [the southern part of] Judah.

19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

They also built cities where they kept the supplies for Solomon, the places where his horses and chariots were kept. They also built everything else that Solomon wanted them to build, in Jerusalem and in Lebanon, and in other places in the area over which he ruled.

20 [And] all the people [that were] left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who [were] not of the children of Israel,

There were many people who belonged to the Amor people-group, the Heth people-group, the Periz people-group, the Hiv people-group, and the Jebus people-group who were not killed when the Israelis captured their land.

21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bond-service to this day.

[Their descendants still lived in Israel]. It was those people whom Solomon forced to become his slaves [to build all those places], and they are still slaves.

22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bond-men: but they [were] men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.

But Solomon did not force any Israeli people to become slaves. Some Israelis became soldiers and army officers and commanders and drivers of his chariots and soldiers who rode on horses.

23 These [were] the chief of the officers that [were] over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, who bore rule over the people that wrought in the work.

There were 550 officials who supervised the slaves who worked [to build all those places].

24 But Pharaoh's daughter came up from the city of David to her house which [Solomon] had built for her: then he built Millo.

After [Solomon’s wife, who was] the daughter of the king of Egypt, moved from [the place outside Jerusalem called] ‘The City of David’ to the palace that Solomon’s workers built for her, Solomon [told his workers to] fill in the slopes on the east side of the city.

25 And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon the altar which he built to the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that [was] before the LORD. So he finished the house.

Three times each year Solomon [brought to the temple] offerings that were completely burned [on the altar] and offerings to restore fellowship with Yahweh. He also brought incense to be burned in the presence of Yahweh. And so his men finished building the temple.

26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which [is] beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

King Solomon’s [workers] also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-Geber [city], which is near Elath [city], on the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba, in the land belonging to the Edom people-group.

27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

[King] Hiram sent some very expert sailors to work on the ships with Solomon’s workers.

28 And they came to Ophir, and imported from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought [it] to king Solomon.

They sailed to [the] Ophir [region] and brought back to Solomon about 16 tons of gold.